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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



THE MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

THE LAW 
THE PROPHETS 
THE WRITINGS 



THE MAKING OF 
THE BIBLE 



BY 



ALBERT E. DUNNING, D.D. 




THE PILGRIM PRESS 

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 






COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY 
ALBERT E. DUNNING 



THE • PLIMPTON • PRESS 

[ W D • ] 
NORWOOD • MASS • U • S • A 



©CI,A30ii?32 
W 



FOKEWORD 

This volume is a primer of introduction to the 
study of the books of the Old Testament. It is 
prepared as a textbook for teachers and students 
of adult Bible Classes. 

Its method is a result of several years' experi- 
ence in teaching. The whole Bible — sixty -six 
books — is first taken up. The twenty-seven 
books of the New Covenant are shown by them- 
selves in the volume with which all Christians are 
familiar. Then the books of the Old Covenant 
in the latest collection are studied by themselves 
as a volume. The second collection is next 
studied in the same way, and finally the earliest 
collection, the nucleus of the Sacred Library. 
Important advantages are gained by this method 
in meeting prejudices and familiarizing the stu- 
dents with processes essential to the formation 
and growth of a library. 

The Bible must be constantly in hand in this 
study, and allowed to speak for itself; otherwise 
this volume will prove of small value. The Scrip- 
ture references are placed in the text rather than 
in foot notes because they are an essential part 
of the study. 

The American Standard Revision is earnestly 
recommended. The references will not always 



VI MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

be found intelligible if the King James Version 
only is used. 

Teachers will find maps of the ancient world 
and some knowledge of Hebrew and cognate his- 
tory almost indispensable. 

It is intended that portions at least of each 
book of the Bible be read in connection with the 
chapter explaining it. 

The word "lesson" is not used as a title, be- 
cause a single chapter will often require more 
than the time of one lesson when students are 
unfamiliar with ancient history. 

Instead of the common method in text books 
of using questions and answers, the insets will be 
found suggestive of questions and the correspond- 
ing italicized words may suggest answers. But it 
is desired that teachers should make the questions 
for their classes. 

The treatment of different books has been 
varied for two reasons: to avoid monotony in 
taking up the study of so many books one after 
another, and to suggest different ways of study. 

Nothing new is offered in these chapters. The 
substance of what is here presented has been 
known and generally accepted by Biblical scholars 
for a generation or more. The attempt is here 
made to put that knowledge into shape for con- 
venient use by teachers and to facilitate intelligent 
reading of the Old Testament. 



FOREWORD Vll 

Solutions of problems concerning the Hebrew 
Scriptures now generally accepted are here adopted 
without any attempt to give the history of their 
solution. Problems not conclusively solved are 
not mentioned. 

Some dates and other matters to which refer- 
ence was necessary are uncertain. In such cases 
what seemed the most probable statements were 
chosen without taking space to explain reasons 
for the choice. Whenever questions arise to 
which satisfactory answers are not found here, 
they should lead to further study, not mere 
acceptance of the opinions of others. On the 
last pages are given books for study, of which the 
dictionaries of the Bible are most important after 
the Bible itself. 

Each of these three Parts is complete in itself, 
and may be used as a separate textbook. 

A considerable number of these chapters have 
been taught in the Bible class for men and women 
in the Old South Church, Boston, Mass., and I 
am much indebted to its members for their co- 
operation in the study which has issued in this 
volume, which I earnestly hope may guide many 
into larger knowledge and greater certainty of the 
Truth which is the Life. 

Albert E. Dunning. 

Boston, August, 1911. 



CONTENTS 



PART ONE 

THE WRITINGS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Chronological Table Facing 3 

I The Books of the Covenant 3 

II The Library of the Covenant ....... 7 

III The Psalms 11 

IV The Book of Proverbs 16 

V The Book of Job 20 

VI The Five Rolls — The Song of Songs .... 24 

VII Ruth 28 

Esther 30 

VIII Ecclesiastes and Lamentations . 33 

IX The Historical Books 38 

Chronicles 39 

X Ezra-Nehemiah 42 

XI The Book of Daniel 45 

XII A General Survey of " the Writings " 50 

PART TWO 

THE PROPHETS 

Map. Assyrian, Babylonian, and Persian 

Empires Facing 59 

I The Beginnings of the Bible 59 

II The Prophetic Books . . . . s 63 

III The Former Prophets — Joshua 68 

IV Judges ..... 73 

V Samuel 78 

VI Kings 82 

ix 



X CONTENTS 

CHAPTER p AGE 

VII The Latter Prophets gg 

VIII Isaiah 90 

IX Isaiah, continued ... 96 

X Jeremiah .... 101 

XI Ezekiel 107 

XII The Twelve .... 112 

XIII Three Eighth Century Prophets — Amos . . . 115 

XIV Hosea 119 

Micah 122 

XV Three Seventh Century Prophets 124 

Zephaniah . . . . 126 

Nahum 128 

Habakkuk . . . . 129 

XVI Three Sixth Century Prophets ...... 131 

Obadiah 132 

Haggai 133 

Zechariah 136 

XVII The Three Latest Prophets — Malachi .... 138 

Joel 142 

XVIII Jonah 143 



PART THREE 

THE LAW 

Map. Period of the Hebrew Settlement of 

Canaan. 1150-1050 b.c Facing 151 

I The Making of the Law 151 

II The Book of Genesis 158 

III The Books of Exodus and Numbers 164 

IV The Book of Leviticus 172 

V The Book of Deuteronomy 177 

VI The Completion of the Library of the Covenant . . 184 

Books for Reference 190 



PART ONE 
THE WRITINGS 



MAKING OF THE BIBLE 



THE BOOKS OF THE COVENANT 

The Bible, as a title describing the Hebrew 
and Christian Scriptures, first came into use in 
Our Name ^ ne fourteenth century of the Christian 
for the era. It comes from the Greek word 
byblos, the name of the papyrus plant 
whose leaves were used to write upon. In the 
singular number the word was byblion, a roll or 
book, Luke 4:17. In early times the neuter 
plural, byblia, described the entire collection of 
sixty-six books, but in the middle ages this word 
was mistaken for a feminine singular, hence our 
title, The Bible. 

The Book of the Covenant was the earliest 
name given by the Hebrews to their sacred 
The writings, Ex. 24:7, 8. Jehovah, their 

Earliest God, gave them through Moses certain 
laws, "statutes and commandments," 
Deut. 6:17, and the people promised to obey 
them, Ex. 24:3. On their promise to obey, 
Jehovah promised to regard them as his own 
peculiar people, Ex. 19:5, 6. This mutual agree- 

3 



4 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

ment was called a Covenant between Jehovah 
and the Hebrews. The writings containing these 
commandments, the promises of the people to 
keep them, the blessings promised to those who 
kept them, and punishments threatened to those 
who disobeyed them, came to be called the books 
of the Covenant. 

The History of the Covenant is the first object 
of study in learning how the Bible began and how 
The First ^ grew. It was at first a Covenant with 
Object of individuals. Examples are Noah, Gen. 
Study 6:18; 9:8-17. Abraham, Gen. 13: 14-17: 
15:18; 17:2-4. Isaac, Gen. 17:19; 26:2-5, 24, 
25. Jacob, Gen. 28:2-4; Ex. 32:13. But when 
the Hebrews became a people, the Covenant 
made with their fathers came to be with the nation. 
It was the national Covenant which led to the 
making of the Hebrew Scriptures. Read Ex. 
6:2-8; 19:3-6; 20:22-24:8; 34:10-27; Deut. 
5:1-22. Study next, 

1. The Institutions related to the Covenant: cir- 
cumcision, Gen. 17:7-14. The book, the altar, 
Ex. 24:3-8; 34:27, 28; 2 Kings 23:2, 3. The 
Sabbath, Ex. 31: 12-18. The priesthood, Num. 
25:12, 13. The ark, Josh, 3:6, 14-17. The 
tabernacle, Ex. 30:43-46. The temple, 1 Kings 
8:21-26. The primitive religious institutions of 
the Hebrews were a holy day, a holy house, and a 
holy book. 



BOOKS OF THE COVENANT 5 

2. The sacredness of words relating to the Cove- 
nant, Deut. 6:4-9; 29:1, 10-14. Blessings prom- 
ised to those who keep it, Deut. 28: 1-14; 30:9, 10; 
Ps. 103:17, 18. Curses pronounced on those who 
break it, Deut. 28:15-68; 30:17-20. 

3. The value of the Covenant, Ps. 25:10, 14; 89: 
1-4; 111:5, 6. 

4. The love of the people for the books of the 
Covenant, Ps. 19:7-14; 40:8-10, Ps. 119. 

The New Covenant was foreshadowed when 
the Hebrew nation declined, as an inward per- 
The New sonal relation with God in the place of 
Covenant a national covenant, Jer. 31:31-34. In 
fulfilment of prophecy it was made between God 
and believers in him through Jesus Christ his 
Son, and sealed by his sacrifice of himself on the 
cross, Matt. 26:26-28; Luke 22:20. The New 
Covenant grew out of and in process of time super- 
seded the Old, Heb. 8 : 6-13. The Christian Scrip- 
tures are the books of the New Covenant. 

The Latin translation of the Greek word mean- 
ing Covenant is testamentum. The Hebrew and 
The Christian Scriptures began to be called 

Testa- the Old and New Testaments in the 
second century of our era. Our study 
at present is confined to the Hebrew Scriptures. 

The selection of books as sacred out of the 
literature of the Hebrews was determined by 
their relation to the Covenant between God and his 



6 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

chosen people. The Covenant was the corner- 
stone of the Hebrew nation, and chosen books 
concerning it were their Holy Scriptures. We 
Christians call them the Old Testament, or better, 
The Old Covenant. 



II 

THE LIBRARY OF THE COVENANT 

The books in the Hebrew sacred library in its 
present form are thirty-nine. They include many 
The forms of literature; history, biography, 

Completed essay; drama, poem, song; story, ser- 
Collection mon> apocalypse. Give examples of 
each. 

Most of these books are composed of various 
documents written at different times. Examples 
are the Psalms, collected into books long after 
they were written as individual psalms; the 
Proverbs; and the abstracts of sermons and 
addresses brought together in the books of the 
prophets. 

Many of these books and of the documents 
included in them were written by persons unknown 
to us. 

They treat of a great variety of subjects: of life 
and death, of men's being, secret thoughts and 
feelings; their relations with one another in the 
home, in business, in society, in government; 
their feelings toward God and his disposition 



8 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

toward them; of nature, art and science; the 
past, present and future. 

Yet they all have a wonderful unity, which 
consists in the relation of each and all these books 
to the Covenant. They have one controlling 
theme — the making of the Covenant and its 
restoration for those who have broken it; one 
supreme personality — the Covenant-keeping God 
and the Redeemer of his people; and one pre- 
vailing exhortation — to enter into this Covenant 
and keep it. 

Authors write books. Editors revise, enlarge 
and combine the writings of others. Collectors 
Th gather into a library books which treat 

Library of the subject or subjects in which they 
in the are interested. Libraries of great 

permanent value are enriched from time 
to time as new books are added furnishing 
further knowledge of the subjects which caused 
the libraries to be formed. 

Each book in this library of the Covenant repre- 
sents the purpose of its author. But the thirty- 
nine books together represent the purpose of 
their collectors to present in a library the nature 
and history of the Covenant between Jehovah and 
his people Israel. 

The books of the New Testament, i.e. the New 
Covenant, are possessed by Christian students 
of the Bible in a volume by themselves. But 



LIBRARY OF THE COVENANT 9 

the library of the Old Testament includes three 
as distinct collections, made and adopted as Holy 
The Scriptures in different periods of Hebrew 

Successive history. Jesus mentioned the three col- 
Collections lections, Luke 24:44. He often spoke 
of the first two, Matt. 5:17, 7:12; 22:40. The 
three are often referred to in Jewish literature. 
We name them here in the order in which we 
shall study them in this course. i 

The latest library, called Kethubim in Hebrew, 
" The Writings," and Hagiographa in Greek, 
The "The Sacred Writings"; eleven books. 

Writings They are (1) The chief books of poetry 

— The Psalms, Proverbs, Job; (2) The five Rolls 

— Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesi- 
astes, Esther; (3) The historical books — Chron- 
icles, Ezra-Nehemiah, Daniel. 

The second library, called in Hebrew, Nebiim 
"The Prophets"; eight books. (1) The former 
The prophets — Joshua, Judges, Samuel, 

Prophets Kings; (2) The latter prophets — Is- 
aiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the minor prophets. 
These are twelve in one book — Amos, Hosea, 
Micah, Zephaniah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah, 
Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Joel, Jonah. 

The earliest collection, called in Hebrew, 
T Tor ah "The Law"; five books — 

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, 
Deuteronomy. 



10 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, 
the Vulgate, and lived 340-420 a.d., thus de- 
scribed the entire collection: 

"All Holy Scripture is divided into three suc- 
cessive parts: Law, Prophets, Hagiographa; that 
is, in five, in eight, and in eleven books." 



m 

THE PSALMS 

The hymn-book of the Jewish Church from the 
time of the second temple was a collection of the 
Th Psalms now included in our Bible. In 

National the time of our Lord the collection 
Hymn- nac [ been growing for several hundred 
years. Luke 20:42; 24:44; Acts 1:20. 

The title is from the Greek word psalmoi, 
meaning poems sung to the music of a lyre or 
other stringed instruments, lyric poetry. 

Five collections are gathered into one, as 
follows: 

Book I. 1-41. Psalms 1 and 2 are introduc- 
tory to the whole 150. The remainder with two 
The exceptions are ascribed to David. See 

Successive titles. 

Collections Book jj ^-1%. The first eight are 
ascribed to a guild of singers, "the sons of Korah," 
most of the others to David. Ps. 72:20 indicates 
that those attributed to David were completed in 
this collection. 

Book III. 73-89. The first ten are ascribed 
ll 



12 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

to the guild of Asaph, four to the sons of Korah, 
one each to David, Heman, and Ethan. 

Book IV. 90-106. Mostly songs of praise and 
thanksgiving. 

Book V. 107-150. Several small collections 
in one. For example, Hallelujah songs 113-118; 
Pilgrim songs 120-134. 

Each book ends with a doxology, 41:13; 72:18, 
19; 89:52; 106:48. Psalm 150 is a doxology 
appended to the entire collection. 

In the American Standard and many other 
editions titles by English editors have been pre- 
Headings ^ xe ^ to the Psalms explaining their 
of the meanings. For example, Psalm 2, "A 
Psalms morning prayer of trust in God." Psalm 
3, "An evening prayer of trust in God." Other 
headings are translations from the Hebrew, pre- 
fixed by Jewish collectors and editors. Some are 
attempts to fix the authorship and the occasion 
of composition, as Psalm 3, "A Psalm of David 
when he fled from Absalom his son." See Psalms 
7, 18, 34. These headings are probably guesses. 
Psalm 30 is described as "a song at the dedication 
of the House, a Psalm of David." The "house" 
referred to is evidently the temple, which was not 
begun till after the death of David. A "song" 
is a common title, 46, 48, 65-68, 75. "A love 
song" is the title of 45. "A prayer," 17, 86, 90. 
The words, "for the chief musician," may have 



THE PSALMS 13 

been taken from the precentor's copy used in the 
temple service. The names of tunes are left 
untranslated, and the meaning of some of them 
is uncertain. Others may be rendered "Hind of 
the Dawn," 22, "Destroy Not," 57-59, 75, a 
tune for a vintage song, Isa. 65: 8, "Silent dove 
in far off lands," 56, "Lilies," 45, "Lilies, a 
Testimony," 80. Other titles describe the form 
or character of the poem, the instruments played 
in accompaniment, male or female voices, etc. 

Popular songs were repeated in successive col- 
lections, with variations. Psalm 14 of Book I 
appears again in Book II, as Psalm 53. The last 
five verses of Psalm 40 in Book I are made a com- 
plete Psalm, 70 in Book II. Parts of Psalm 57, 
vs. 7-11, and Psalm 60, vs. 5-12 in Book II are 
combined to make Psalm 108 in Book V. 

Comparison with modern hymn-books will help 
much in understanding the Psalms. Note how 
hymns have been altered to fit tunes, 
with now stanzas by different authors have 

Modern been combined, and how expressions in 
Books" them have been changed to adapt them 
to different conditions and modified 
beliefs. The hymns in the hymn-book of the 
Jews have passed through similar modifications. 

The sources of the Psalms are found in the 
Books of the Law. Ps. 19:7-14. The synagogue 
service in which the Law books were read made 



14 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

their counsels and commandments popular. De- 
vout souls meditated on them and expressed their 
Uses aspirations in songs. Hymns express- 

of the ing personal experience were adapted 
Psalms j. Q public use ^11 the people sang, 

and their songs were simple and natural — songs 
of solitude on the mountains, songs of gladness 
in harvest, plaints of sorrow over disappoint- 
ment, dirges over the death of friends, praises 
for Jehovah's deliverances. The whole range of 
human emotions found expression in the sifted 
product of centuries of experience, personal and 
national. The underlying thought in the entire 
collection is the Covenant relation between Jehovah 
and his people. Psalms 25:10-14; 50:4, 5, 16, 17; 
89:3, 28, 29, 34; 111:5, 9. 

The Psalms are read more extensively than any 
other book in the world. In ages before printing, 
multitudes of Christians knew almost nothing of 
the Bible except the Psalms. The ritual of the 
Episcopal church provides that the Epistles shall 
be read twice in the public services of the year, 
the Gospels three times, and the Psalms twelve 
times. 

The Psalms in private and public use came to 
minister to the spiritual needs and aspirations of 
the whole Hebrew people; and they are adapted 
to the use of all mankind. For lyric poetry is 
suited to the utterance of universal experience. 



THE PSALMS 15 

The inspiration of the Psalms was the life of 
God in the souls of men finding expression in 
Their their exalted spiritual conditions, and 

Inspiration^ ^he spiritual conditions of the whole 
people, using their national traits and modes of 
thought as means for the communication of di- 
vine truth to men. 

The Psalms are a collection of collections of 
hymns by many writers, in different periods of 
Their Hebrew history. They are of the kind 

Authorship attributed to the national hero whom 
the Hebrews regarded as their greatest poet — 
David, the sweet singer of Israel, and therefore 
they are known as The Psalms of David. 



IV 
THE BOOK OF PROVERBS 

The wisdom teaching in the old Testament 
is a distinct class of literature. Three kinds of 
T k e authors wrote the books of the Bible. 

Wisdom The priests gave instruction, the prophets 
Books t j ie wor( j or message of God, the sages 
counsel, Jer. 18:18. Wisdom in its earlier forms 
consisted of sententious sayings, dealing with 
practical problems of human life. Wisdom on its 
divine side was an attribute of God in all his 
creative activities, Prov. 8:22-31. 

The wisdom books are Proverbs, Job, and 
Ecclesiastes. Of similar character are two apoc- 
ryphal books, Ecclesiasticus and the Wisdom of 
Solomon. 

The Proverbs are conclusions from the reflec- 
tions and reasonings of Hebrew sages. They 
The express the Hebrew nation's judgment 

Proverbs f ^ ne wav i Q SUCC ess in life. They are 
the convictions of a people whose ruling principle 
was loyalty to Jehovah, the results of human 
experience through many generations. 

The thesis of Proverbs is that Wisdom is blessed- 

16 



THE BOOK OF PROVERBS 17 

ness. The alphabet of wisdom is the fear of God, 
Prov. 9:10, and the avoidance of evil, 8:13. 
The This wisdom is the matter of greatest 

Subject importance in life, 4:7. To gain it is 
the highest success, 8:11; to fail to get it is to lose 
everything, 8:36. This thesis expressed in axioms 
is in large part the book of Proverbs. Its sayings 
are practical wisdom applied to the common 
concerns of life. They are instructions which the 
simplest can understand, Isa. 35:8, as to the way 
to keep the Covenant. 

The proverbs are expressed in didactic poetry, 
which belongs to the domain of reason, while 
. . . lyric poetry is the expression of feeling 
and belongs to the domain of the emo- 
tions. The main collection is 10:1-22:16. Each 
couplet reiterates the same contrasted truths in 
varied forms: that wisdom is blessedness, folly 
is misery. Be good and you will prosper; be 
wicked and you will suffer. Read for comparison 
Deut. chapter 28. This collection is ascribed to 
Solomon in the title, 10: 1. 

An appendix to the main collection 22:17- 
24:22. vs. 17-21 are a letter introducing the teach- 
ing that follows. A sonnet on wine is included, 
23:29-35. 

A second appendix, 24:23-34, concludes with a 
word picture, vs. 33, 34, repeated in the later 
general introduction to the book, 6:10, 11. 



18 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

The second collection is ascribed to men of King 
Hezekiah's court, about 250 years after the time 
of Solomon, chapters 25-29. 

Three short collections: (a) prayer of Agur, 
chapter 30; (6) teachings of King Lemuel's 
mother, 31:1-9; (c) acrostic poem on a Worthy 
Woman, 31:10-31. 

An original introduction to the collections as a 
whole, chapters 1-9, is in nobler style than the 
remainder of the book. 

A study in detail of the book of Proverbs 
may be briefly suggested. Ch. 1:1-6 is the 
general title of the whole book; 1:7 is the 
Sugges- thesis; 1:8, 9 is an introduction; 1:10- 
tions for 19 is a sonnet on Evil Company, the 

u y first line of v. 10 being expanded in 
vs. 11-14, while the second line is expanded 
in vs. 15, 16. 

Taking 18:22 for a general statement on the 
value of a wife, note the qualification of it in 19:14, 
and further modifications in 21:9 (repeated in 
25:24), 21:19 and 30:23. 

For a study of the sluggard consider 13:4; 
22:13 (compare the better form 26:13), and the 
poems, 6:6-11; 26:13-16. 

Fools are described in 10:1 (repeated 15:20) 
17:21, 24, 25, and 26:1-12. 

Note terse descriptions in chapter 26 of the 
meddler, vs. 17, the practical joker, vs. 18, 19, 



THE BOOK OF PROVERBS 19 

the slanderer, v. 20, the quarrelsome 'person, v. 21, 
and the hypocrite, vs. 22-28. 

Riddles are propounded and answered 30: 15-33, 
e.g. v. 18 is the riddle, v. 19 the answer. 

The book of Proverbs is a collection of collec- 
tions of Sayings of Sages in many generations. 
Author- They are of the type of those attributed 
shi P to the national hero whom the Hebrews 

regarded as the greatest of their sages, hence they 
are called the Proverbs of Solomon, 



THE BOOK OF JOB 

The thesis of the book of Proverbs is that wis- 
dom is blessedness. The popular interpretation of 
Its it was that those who obey God will 

Theme prosper and be happy, while those who 
disobey him will have disasters and be miser- 
able. This is also the theme of the first Psalm. 

The book of Job is a challenge to this thesis. 
Admitting the general principle of the Hebrew 
teaching that only the righteous receive the 
approval of God, Deut. 28:1-14, Ps. 37:35-40, 
Job 5 : 3-7, it faces the fact that righteous persons 
often suffer the severest adversity. This book 
asks how a righteous God can inflict such suffering 
on righteous men, Job 10:1-7, and suggests without 
dogmatically stating the answer, Job 40 : 1-5 ; 
42:1-6. 

Job is a dramatic poem. It may be compared 
with Shakespeare's King Lear. The prologue 
j ts or first act includes five scenes; (1) a 

Literary picture of the oriental family of Job, 
1:1-5; (2) a scene in heaven, where the 
Satan or Adversary, also a son of God, 1 : 6, ac- 

20 



THE BOOK OF JOB 21 

cuses Job before God, 1:6-12; (3) a picture of 
Job's trials, 1: 13-22; (4) a new challenge of Job 
by the Satan, 2:1-6; (5) Job enduring the test, 
2:7-10. 

The second act presents three cycles of speeches 
between Job and his friends, chapters 3-27. He 
and they all belong to the guild of Sages or Wise 
Men. Job is the heretic of his time. He maintains 
his innocence, and this is at the outset admitted, 
1:8. Yet the calamities that have overtaken him 
are evident and extreme. 

Three great orthodox teachers from three 
countries attempt to prove him wrong, 2:11. Job 
opens the discussion by lamenting that he was 
born, 3:1-10, that he did not die as soon as born, 
3:11-19, and wishes that death might come to 
him, 3:20-26. 

Eliphaz replies by asserting the orthodox doctrine 
that suffering is the punishment of sin, 4 : 7, and 
declaring that the doctrine has been confirmed to 
him by observation, 4:8-11, and through revela- 
tion received by him in a vision, 4:12-21. He 
concludes by exhorting Job to repent of his wicked- 
ness, 5 : 8-26, assuring him that he himself has 
finally settled the whole question, 5 : 27. 

Job replies that he finds no good in the doctrine, 
rejects its application to himself, 6:1-23, and 
appeals from his friends to God, 7:11-21. 

Bildad is shocked at Job's wickedness, 8:1-7, 



22 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

proves from the Scriptures that the doctrine is 
true, 8 : 8-10, and again exhorts Job to repent, 
8:20-22. 

Job assents to the doctrine, 9:2, but is horror- 
stricken that God does not respond to his appeal, 
9 : 33-35, and that there is no future world to set 
this world right, 10:20-22. 

Zophar replies with dogmatic assertion of the 
doctrine of the other friends, 11:1-12, and once 
more exhorts Job to repent, 11:13-20. 

Job answers all three, avows that he is as wise 
as they are, 12:1-6, that they are liars for God, 
13:7-12, appeals from them to God, vs. 20-28, 
and declares that he has no hope of a future 
life, 14:7-22. 

This is the end of the first cycle. The others 
are mainly repetitions of the first in intenser forms 
of expression. There is, however, a progress 
toward serenity in Job's words, and he finally 
silences his opponents. At the end of the third 
cycle is, — 

A poem in praise of wisdom, chapter 28, begin- 
ning with a magnificent description of mining, 
vs. 1-11, and comparing it with the search for 
wisdom, vs. 12-28. Then follow: 

The final words of Job, chapters 29-31. 

The answer of Jehovah, chapters 38-41. 

The confession of Job and the record of his 
restoration and prosperity, chapter 42. 



THE BOOK OF JOB 23 

The speeches of Elihu, chapters 32-37, are a 
later orthodox addition condemning Job and dis- 
agreeing with the conclusion in chapter 42. 

The book of Job is one of the greatest master- 
pieces of the world's literature. Its disclosure of 
T n the deepest human experiences, of the 

soul's struggle to find God, of the vary- 
ing moods of mind in confession, aspiration, 
despair, and trust; its humor, invective, its 
revelation of God known and yet beyond all 
human knowledge, its utterances of instinctive 
longing for a future life, make it one of the most 
rewarding of all books for thorough study. 

The outcome of the drama is that the righteous 
man found God through his experience of affliction. 
The Out- When he saw God, that is, perceived 
come his character by spiritual insight, he 

discovered how foolish were his challenges and 
criticisms of the conventional God he had known. 



VI 
THE FIVE ROLLS 

Five books were known to the Jews as Megil- 
loth, i.e. The Rolls, because they were used for 
public reading in the synagogue on special occa- 
sions, and each was written on a separate parch- 
ment or papyrus. They are: 

The Song of Songs, read at the Feast of the 
Passover. 

Ruth, read at the Feast of Pentecost. 

Esther, read at the Feast of Purim. 

Ecclesiastes, read at the Feast of Tabernacles. 

Lamentations, read on the Day of the Destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem. 

The Song of Songs 
It means "the loveliest of all songs," 1:1, as 
Th T*tl " n °ly °f holies" means the most holy 
of all places. The common name, Can- 
ticles, is Latin, taken from the Vulgate ver- 
sion. 

The work is ascribed to Solomon because he was 

24 



THE FIVE ROLLS 25 

believed to be the most popular and prolific 
writer of songs, just as Proverbs and Ecclesi- 
The astes are assigned to him because he 

Author was the typically wise man of the 
Hebrews, 1 Kings 4:30-32. 

The theme is the physical beauty of a man and 
a woman, and the consequent attraction of each 
The for the other. It sings of the unreserved 

Theme an( j complete devotion of each to the 
other. The lover's name is Solomon, 3:7, 9, 11; 
8:12, because he was the most glorious king, and 
the greatest lover of women, 1 Kings 11: 1-3, and 
the object of his love is the Shulammite or Shun- 
ammite, 6:13, because Abishag the Shunammite 
was the fairest maiden who could be found in 
Israel, 1 Kings 1:3, 4. 

Various theories have been held. The most 
probable one is that the book is a sifted collec- 

Structure ^ on °^ son g s sun g DV country people in 
and Palestine on the wedding day and fol- 

aracter j owm g d a y S known as the King's Week. 
It has been appropriately called the great Honey- 
moon Song of all literature. 

The book may be divided into seven cantos or 
idylls, which Professor Moulton names as the 
A . . wedding day, 1:2-2:7; The bride's 
reminiscences, 2 : 8-3 : 5 ; The day of 
betrothal, 3:6-5:1; The bride's dream, 5:2-6:3; 
The bridegroom's musing on her beauty, 6:4-7:9; 



26 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

The bride's longing for her home, 7:10-8:4, and 
the renewing of wedding vows, 8:5-14. 

Some key to the book is necessary in order to 
read it intelligently. Several modern commen- 
Suggested taries provide a key. A rendering is 
Study h ere suggested of the first canto, as an 
example. The participants are the bride, bride- 
groom, and a chorus of maidens: 

The bride speaks, 1 : 2-7, the chorus interrupting 
with the second, fourth and fifth clauses of verse 
4. In verse 5 she says, "I am black;" when her 
lover interrupts, "nay, comely," she continues, 
"as the (black) tents of Kedar," and he again 
replies, "as the (white) curtains of Solomon." 

The groom speaks, vs. 8-11; the bride, vs. 12- 
14; the groom, v. 15; the bride, 1:16-2:1; the 
groom, v. 2; the bride, vs. 3-6, while the idyll 
ends with the refrain, v. 7. Compare 3: 5 and 8: 4. 

The warmth of amatory speech between lovers, 
though veiled in symbols, is more suited to 
oriental thought than to ours. Yet note the 
exquisite beauty of style that delights in the cool 
of the early dawn when shadows flee, 4 : 6, the fra- 
grance of gardens, 2:12, 13; 4:13-15; the cooing 
of doves in rocky clefts, 2: 14, and the sight of 
swift gazelles, 8: 14. 

In the Jewish church the Song of Songs was 
described as "that song in which God praises 
us and we him." The relation between husband 



THE FIVE ROLLS 27 

and wife is as often taken in the books of the 
Covenant to illustrate the feeling between God 
Religious and his people as the relation between 
Use father and child, e.g. Isa. 54 : 4-8 ; 62 : 3-5. 

In the Christian church also the relation between 
Christ and his church is typified by the relation 
between bridegroom and bride, Eph. 5 : 25-32, 
though neither Christ nor his apostles quoted from 
the Song of Songs. The interpretation of the 
book by religious people who have constituted 
the church of God through the ages must be 
recognized as an important phase of the inspira- 
tion through which the disposition of God towards 
them and their relations with him have been 
manifested. 

This book was read in the synagogues of the 
time of Christ at the Feast of the Passover on 
the eighth day. 



VII 
THE ROLLS: RUTH AND ESTHER 

Men of strongly divergent religious and political 
opinions were leaders in the Hebrew common- 
wealth, and their views have found expression in 
the Hebrew Scriptures. For example some pro- 
claimed that the temple at Jerusalem ought to 
invite all nations into it to worship God, Isa. 
56 : 6, 7. They would extend to foreigners the 
same kindness as to Jews, Lev. 19:34. Others 
would exclude all except Jews from sharing in 
the worship of the temple, Deut. 23:3, 7, 8. The 
larger view is expressed in Psalm 67, the narrower 
in Psalm 137. 

Two love stories in the third library strikingly 
contrast these views, Ruth and Esther. 

The Book of Ruth 

The name means "companion." The book 
stands for the breadth of Hebrew sympathy with 
The foreigners. The law excluding them, 

Theme Deut. 23 : 3-8, was adopted in Jerusalem 
about 621 B. c, 2 Kings 22:8-13. It could not 

28 



RUTH AND ESTHER 29 

have been known in the time of David, 1 Sam. 
22:3, 4, nor of Solomon, 1 Kings 11:1, nor of 
King Rehoboam whose mother was an Am- 
monitess, 1 Kings 14:21. But it was enforced 
with much cruelty after the return of the Jews 
from captivity, Ez. 10:1-17, 44. The story of 
Ruth is a plea for the foreigner. 

The book is a little drama of village and family 
life. The belle of Bethlehem, Naomi (the Pleasant 
The One) suffers poverty, exile in Moab, 

Outline bereavement in the death of her hus- 
band, and of her sons leaving no offspring. She 
returns to Bethlehem empty handed, as Mara 
(the woman of bitter trials), with only her Moabite 
daughter-in-law, 1 : 22. But from her entrance 
into the town, the Moabitess takes the center of 
the stage. She lighted on the right field to glean 
the barley, 2 : 3, won the hearts of the young 
reapers and of their employer, because of her 
grace of person and character, 2:7-13, got the 
place of honor at their table, 2: 14, got one of the 
most honored of the Hebrews as her lover, 3 : 10, 11, 
and husband, 4:10, brought about a reversal of 
the sad lot of Naomi as completely as that of 
Job, 4: 14, 15; and thus the Moabitess, forbidden 
to enter the temple by the narrow law of Hebrew 
exclusiveness, became the most honored among 
Hebrew women, the ancestress of its greatest 
king and line of kings, 4:17. 



30 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

The story is placed far back in the days of the 
Hebrew judges, 1:1. It was written when the 
The Date customs °^ those days had long been 
forgotten, 4:7. It probably dates from 
about the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and pos- 
sibly was written by the husband of one of those 
unselfish and lovable foreign women who were 
being excluded from the Jewish state, Ez. 9:2. 
It is intended to prove that foreigners may be 
included in God's Covenant with his chosen 
people. 

1 This story in eighty-five verses cannot be 
matched in all the literature of the world for 
beauty, completeness and nobility of treatment 
of its theme. It was read in the synagogues at 
the Feast of Pentecost. 



The Book of Esther 

The book of Esther is in complete contrast 
to that of Ruth. The generosity of the latter 
The toward foreigners is changed into intense 

Theme bitterness. A Jewess, through the power 
of her physical beauty, secures the slaughter of 
multitudes of Gentiles. 

The object of the book appears to have been to 
explain the origin and meaning of the Feast of 
Purim, 9: 26-28. But especially it aims to glorify 
the Jews. The Jew Mordecai stands for a nation 



RUTH AND ESTHER 31 

superior to all others, 9 : 2. All other men do 
homage to Haman the Gentile, but the Jew does 
not, 3: 2. Even in the judgment of his own wife 
the great Haman must fall before Mordecai, 6:13. 
The Jew Mordecai stands next to the king, 10: 3. 

Esther the Jewess surpasses in beauty the 
greatest Persian queen, Vashti, 1 :19. All the fair- 
est virgins of the empire having been examined, 
the king found the Jewess lovelier than all the 
other women, 2:17. The Jews had many enemies 
but ruled over them all, 9:1. Deliverance was 
certain to come to Jews in one way or another, 
4:14. All people are moved to fear the Jews, and 
many because they fear become proselytes, 8:17. 

In countries where the Jews are persecuted this 
book is read at the Feast of Purim in the month 
The Use Adar, with boisterous praises of Esther 
of Esther an( j Mordecai, and bitter curses against 
Haman. She gained her victory, according to 
the story, not by her character but by her physical 
beauty. She relentlessly pursued the enemies of 
the Jews after they had fallen, and after causing 
the killing of many thousands of them, asked and 
gained the privilege of slaughtering 75,000 more, 
including women and children, 9:10-16. 

The book stands for the spirit fostered by 
centuries of foreign rule over the Jews, in which 
they suffered great persecutions. Though the 
name of God is not mentioned in it, it witnesses 



32 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

to the confidence of his people that he would keep 
his Covenant with them. 

But its assumption of national arrogance and 
its manifest hatred to other nations, while very 
acceptable to narrow and patriotic Jews, roused 
the strong opposition of those with broader vision 
to its admission among the other sacred writings. 

After its acceptance by a Jewish synod Alexan- 
drian Jews sought to improve it by additions which 
are preserved in the Apocrypha. Some Christian 
teachers in every age have rejected it. Martin 
Luther said of it: "I am so hostile to this book that 
I wish it did not exist." 



VIII 

THE FIVE ROLLS: ECCLESIASTES 
AND LAMENTATIONS 

The book of Ecclesiastes is called in Hebrew, 
Koheleth, which is inaccurately translated the 
The "Preacher," 1:1. It means rather a 

Author presider over an assembly, (ecclesia), 
perhaps of debaters. The reasons are decisive, 
in the subjects discussed, the language used, and 
references to the book in Jewish literature that 
it was written several centuries after the time 
of Solomon. 

The theme is stated at the beginning 1 : 2, that 
everything is valueless, wearisome, aimless. It is 
The amplified in a dreary reiteration of the 

Theme emptiness of life and its monotonous 
round, vs. 3-11. 

Then follows the mention of the pursuits and 
experiences which absorb the lives of men, which 
The the author declares bring no satis- 

Contents faction, but in the end are "vanity 
and a striving after wind." These are: 



34 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

Study, the search after wisdom, 1: 12-18. 

Pleasure, the search for self gratification, 2: 1-11, 
with reflections, 2: 12-17 (compare Job 3: 1 ff.). 

Labor, 2:18-23. 

Society, 3:16-4:3. 

Religion, 5:1-7. 

Wealth, 5:10-17. 

Length of Life, 11:9-12:8. 

Various observations are interspersed, many of 

them without apparent connection. Some are 

,„, rp wise and some are otherwise, but the 
The Tone . ' 

tone oi the whole book is extremely 
pessimistic and discouraging. The wearisomely 
reiterated conclusion of each and all the writer's 
observations is "this also is vanity," e.g. 2:18-26; 
6:1-6, Chapters 7-10 are disconnected moraliz- 
ing, ringing changes on the refrain that death is the 
end of all things, and ending with the oft-repeated 
counsel of the poet Horace, "Carpe diem" which 
in substance is, "Let us eat and drink, for to- 
morrow we die." The book is largely a reflec- 
tion of Greek thought in the third and second 
centuries b. c. 

Ecclesiastes is an ideal biography of a soul 
traversing the whole realm of experience, good, 

It U ev ^' anc * mcu fferent, tlmt ends in self, 

finding no satisfaction in it. The re- 
sults of such an experience are summarized in the 
inference of the later editor who added 12:11, 



THE FIVE ROLLS 35 

12, and perhaps the still later one who wrote 
12:13, 14. 

The book is a chapter in the education of those 
who learn by experience of many disappointments 
that the true end of life is keeping covenant with God. 

It was read in the synagogues at the Feast of 
Tabernacles. 

The Book of Lamentations 

The book of Lamentations is usually placed 
third in the list of the Five Rolls. 

It consists of five poems, of which the third has 
sixty-six verses, the others twenty-two verses 
Its each, the number of letters in the 

Structure Hebrew alphabet. The first four are 
acrostic. In the first, second, and fourth poem 
each verse begins with a letter of the alphabet in 
succession; in the third each of three verses begins 
with the same letter. Compare the structure of 
this poem with that of Ps. 119. The first four 
poems are elegies, the fifth is a prayer. 

Its theme is the destruction of Jerusalem by 
Nebuchadnezzar 586 b. c. These dirges lament 
The the ruin of the city with intensest 

Theme passion, depicting scenes of horror and 
pathos, the palaces of Judah destroyed, the 
temple desecrated, starving women who had been 
reared in refinement and luxury killing and eating 
their own children. 



36 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

In the first elegy the poet sings his sorrow, 
vs. 1-11. Then the city utters her woe, vs. 12-18, 
The and appeals to God against her enemies, 

Contents vs< 19-22. 

In the second also the divine judgment is 
acknowledged, vs. 1-10, the inconsolable shame 
and sorrow are poured forth, vs. 11-19, and an 
appeal is made to God for his pity, vs. 20-22. 

The third begins with bitter lament, vs. 1-20, 
offers prayers of submission and hope, vs. 21-36, 
of penitence and confession, vs. 37-54, and pleads 
for vengeance on the enemies of Jerusalem, 
vs. 55-66. 

The fourth laments the fate of the people, 
vs. 1-6, of the princes, vs. 7-11, of priests and 
prophets, vs. 13-16, of the king, vs. 17-20, and 
prophesies doom on Edom, vs. 21, 22, because of 
her cruelties, Ps. 137:7. 

The fifth is a lament over the sorrows of the 
city, vs. 1-18, and concludes with a passionate 
prayer for deliverance, vs. 19-22. 

Its author is unknown. Probably there were 
more than one. Jeremiah may have written one 

It A th or more °^ ^ ne po ems > as is stated in the 
Greek translation, 2 Chron, 35: 25. 
The poems are elaborately constructed, yet 

It U every view of common grief, and every 

suggestion which might stir a chord of 

sorrow are brought together to complete the picture 



THE FIVE ROLLS 37 

of woe which followed the breaking of the Covenant 
with God by the nation. 

The Lamentations were read publicly on the 
anniversary of the Day of the Destruction of 
Jerusalem and are still read beside the old wall of 
the city by devout Jews. 



IX 

THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 

Although a considerable part of what we call 
the Old Testament was written before the cap- 
The tivity of the Jews in Babylon, all the 

Making * tliree c °U ections > tne Law, the Prophets 
the and the Writings, were made after 

Library t h e i r re turn to Judea. Nearly all of 
the books already in existence were rewritten 
and edited. The entire period from 538 b. c. to 
the beginning of the Christian era is therefore 
of the greatest interest in the study of the making 
of the Bible. 

Our only historical record of what occurred to 
the Jews during the first century after the return 
from the captivity is in the books of Ezra and 
Nehemiah. These are only one book in the 
Jewish and Greek collections. In early Christian 
use they were known as first and second Ezra. 

These books and the Chronicles are practically 
one collection, compiled from various sources by 
the same editor more than one hundred years 
after the latest events mentioned in them occurred. 
The division between the roll of Chronicles and 

38 



THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 39 

the roll of Ezra was in the middle of a sentence. 
Compare 2 Chron. 36:22, 23 with Ezra 1:1-4 
where those two verses are repeated and com- 
pleted. The division into four rolls was probably 
to make them of most convenient size for reading 
and reference. 

The Book of the Chronicles 

The book of Chronicles comes last in the Hebrew 
Bible, but its records precede those of Ezra- 
Nehemiah. We therefore study this book first. 

The death of the Hebrew nation through the 
captivity was the beginning of the resurrection of 
Its the Hebrew spirit which reconstructed 

Purpose t ne Hebrew religion. It was to be 
expected that the Jews, returning to their own 
land to reestablish public worship at Jerusalem, 
would produce a general review of their history 
from the beginning of the world under the guidance 
of their God. The compiler of Chronicles under- 
took this task. He was apparently a Levite, 
probably a priest, whose chief interest was to 
magnify the temple and its ritual. He adapted 
the history to the needs of his own time. 

The book is not a continuous history, but a 
compilation of documents joined together into 
Its a narrative, with little effort to con- 

Sources cea j £ts composite structure. Books of 
Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, 1 Chron. 29:29, and 



40 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

various other records, 2 Chron. 9:29; 12:15; 
13:22; 26:22; 33:18, were drawn upon. But 
large portions are copied from the books of Samuel 
and Kings. 

Chapters 1-9 are compiled from the first thirty- 
six chapters of Genesis. Chapters 10-20 are the 
Its history of David's reign, introductory 

Outline ^ ^ e \ on g account of his purchase of 
a site for the temple, his preparations for building 
it and arranging in detail its services. 2 Chron. 
chapters 1-9 are the account of Solomon's reign. 
Chapters 10-36 are the history of Judah from 
Rehoboam to the exile. 

References in the book indicate that its com- 
piler used extensively "commentaries" on his- 
Its His- tories of the Hebrews, 2 Chron. 12: 15; 
torical 24 : 27, i.e. reflections and conclusions 

ue on the religious significance of historic 

events as recorded. There are evidences that he 
was often not careful to verify the statements he 
used, while he used them in good faith to exalt 
the heroes of Judah and to show that God always 
rewards the pious and punishes the wicked. For 
example, he omits all reference to David's adultery 
and Solomon's idolatry, and the tribute which 
Hezekiah paid to Sennacherib, 2 Kings 18:14-16. 
He magnifies the greatness of his heroes, e.g. the 
fifty shekels of silver which David paid for the 
site of the temple, 2 Sam. 24:24, become six 



THE HISTORICAL BOOKS 41 

hundred shekels of gold in the story of the 
Chronicler, 1 Chron. 21 : 25. The income of 
Solomon in the height of his prosperity was 666 
talents of gold, 2 Chron. 9: 13. But David accu- 
mulated 100,000 talents of gold besides a mil- 
lion talents of silver for building the temple, 
1 Chron. 22:14. 

The Chronicler knows no history worth record- 
ing except that of Judah. Israel is an apostate 
kingdom. The pious kings are the greatest. 
David had an army of more than a million and 
a half, 1 Chron. 21 : 5, and Jehoshaphat over a 
million, 2 Chron. 17:12-19. But Rehoboam 
had only 180,000, 2 Chron. 11:1. There are 
frequent changes and sometimes contradictions 
of the original sources. 

The religious value of Chronicles does not rest 
on the accuracy of its history. Its account of 
The Hezekiah's passover, e.g. 2 Chron. 

Religious 30 : 1-27, which has little historic basis, 
shows a breadth of sympathy, an exalta- 
tion of the spirit above the letter, not excelled in 
the Old Testament. The book is also valuable 
as exhibiting the character of Judaism in the third 
century B. c. 



X 

THE BOOK OF EZRA-NEHEMIAH 

This book contains our only historical records 
of the Jews for the century from 538-432 b. c. 

Its significance in the history of the Bible is 
not second to any other of the Sacred Writings. 
j v . For it covers the period of the begin- 
ning of Judaism in which the library of 
the books of the Covenant was created, and 
which brought forth Jesus Christ, the Founder 
of the New Covenant. 

To understand its relation to the world history 
of the period some knowledge is required of the 
Its Place movements of the nations with which 
in World the Jews were most closely connected. 

is ory Therefore the student should become 
familiar with a map of the Old Testament World, 
a chronology of the kings of Babylon and Persia 
from Cyrus to Artaxerxes II, and at least an 
outline of the events during their reigns. The 
location of the little province of Judea in relation 
to the successive empires of the east and to Egypt 
and Greece on the south west should be kept 
clearly in mind. 

42 



BOOK OF EZRA-NEHEMIAH 43 

Its relation to other books of the Bible makes 
it important to read in connection with the history 
Its place the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah 
in the stimulating the building of the temple, 

of Malachi picturing the degeneracy 
of the Jews during the seventy years of which the 
historic book gives no record, of Isaiah, chapters 
40-66, and several of the Psalms. 

The book is mainly a compilation of documents 
which had been originally written many years 
j ts before they were brought together by 

Historic the Chronicler. Their arrangement is 
not entirely chronological. They in- 
clude documents in Hebrew, such as the memoirs 
of Ezra 7:27-8:34; 9:1-15; and of Nehemiah, 
1 :l-7 : 4 ; and documents in Aramaic, Ez. 4 : 8-6 :18 ; 
7:12-26. They are so used as to represent the 
point of view of the editor of Chronicles and Ezra- 
Nehemiah, explained in the last chapter. 

These records describe the return from Babylon 
and the laying of the foundations of the temple, 
Ez. 1:1-4:6; 4:24-6:22. Then after an interval 
of about seventy years without record, the work 
of Nehemiah in building the walls of Jerusalem 
and organizing its civic life includes Neh. chapters 
1-7 and 11-13, inserting between chapters 6 and 
7 Ez. 4:6-27. Neh. 7:6-73 is a repetition of Ez. 
2:1-70. The work of Ezra in teaching and en- 
forcing the Law is told in Ez. chapters 7-10, 



44 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

(inserting Neh. 7:70-8:18 after Ez. chapter 8) 
and Neh. chapters 8-10. The conclusion is the 
Covenant, renewed and signed by the leading 
men, adapted to their times, Neh. 10:1-31, with 
pledges of contributions for the maintenance of 
the temple service, vs. 32-39. 

Besides the great importance of this book 
illumining the period of the organization and 
Its early development of Judaism, it pre- 

Religious sents the life work of representative 
a ue characters created by self-denying faith 

in God: Ezra, the exponent of the law and the 
builder of the church, and Nehemiah, the able, 
daring, devoted civil ruler, one of the most 
worthy and winsome in Hebrew history, told in 
their own words. 



XI 
THE BOOK OF DANIEL 

Two things are essential to the forming of an 
intelligent opinion of the book of Daniel — a 
study of Jewish apocalyptic writings and a knowl- 
edge of the career of Antiochus Epiphanes. Space 
is lacking for their consideration here further 
than brief explanation. 

Apocalyptic literature is a method of disclosing 
the author's views of the spiritual and especially 
A p o c a - the future world by description of things 
lypticLit- seen and heard in visions and dreams. 
The things seen are symbols, usually 
of animals of various sorts and mythological 
beings, Dan. 7:2-8. The apocalypse was a pre- 
vailing type of Jewish literature during the two 
centuries before and the first century after the 
beginning of the Christian era. By it was ex- 
pressed the faith in the overthrow of Israel's foes 
and her triumphant rule under the coming Messiah. 

The reign of Antiochus IV, called Epiphanes 

,_ (the "manifestation" of God) 175-164 
Antiochus , ii. 

b. c, was the most cruel and oppressive 

in Jewish annals. His purpose was to crush out 

45 



46 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

the religion of Jehovah and forcibly to establish 
in its stead the Greek religion among the Jews. 
He was supported by one Jewish party, but 
opposed to the death by another party, the fore- 
runner of the Pharisees. The conflict resulted 
in the victory of Judas Maccabeus and his brothers, 
the purification of the temple which Antiochus 
had polluted by the image of the Greek god Zeus, 
Matt. 24:15; Dan. 9:27; 11:31, and the practical 
political independence of the Jews for a century. 

The purpose of the book of Daniel was to en- 
courage the religious party of the Jews under 
Its their intolerable persecutions by Anti- 

Purpose ochus. Its hero and reputed author, 
according to a common custom of apocalyptic 
writing, was a renowned sage of ancient time, 
Ezekiel 14:14,20; 28:3, whose name may have 
been borne by a Hebrew youth of noble birth 
carried away with the first company deported to 
Babylon, Dan. 1:3-6. 

The book is divided into two parts. The 
first, chapters 1-6 is a series of six adventures by 
Its Daniel and his companions, in which he 

Structure an j ^ e y we re found to be far superior 
in wisdom, skill, and strength to any one ever 
known in Babylon, because of the superiority of 
Jehovah their God, 1:20; 2:46-49; 3:29; 4:37; 
5:29; 6:25-27. Each of these stories is indepen- 
dent of the others, as the final sentence in each 



BOOK OF DANIEL 47 

shows. It is probable that each was circulated 
as an independent story for the encouragement 
of the faithful. Not all their statements are 
supported by known historic facts. 

Chapters 7-12 present a series of visions with 
the same object. A key to their interpreta- 
tion may be found in ch. 11 where the chief 
characters named are easily discernible by the 
student of the history of Persia and Syria. The 
apparent prophecy is history, and of the four kings, 
Ez. 4:5-7, Xerxes, "far richer than them all," 
Dan 11: 2, stirred up Greece by a great campaign 
in which he was defeated. Afterwards rose up 
Alexander the Great, v. 3,, (the he-goat, 8:5,21) 
whose kingdom was divided among his four 
generals, "not to his posterity," v. 4. One of 
these, the king of the South, Ptolemy I "shall 
be strong," but not so strong as his former subor- 
dinate, Seleucus I, v. 5. The attempted alliance 
between Egypt and Syria by the marriage of 
Berenice, daughter of Ptolemy II to Antiochus II 
shall not succeed, v. 6, but her brother Ptolemy 
III shall defeat Seleucus II, v. 7, and carry away 
the idols and treasures of Syria to Egypt, v. 8. 
The king of Syria shall attempt a reprisal in vain, 
v. 9. Antiochus IV is "the little horn," 8:9ff, 
"the king of fierce countenance," 8:23-25, the 
blasphemous one, 11 : 36-39. But persecution shall 
purify the good, and when trials are completed 



48 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

men shall be divided according to character, 12:8- 

10. This brief interpretation may aid the student 

to get at the meaning of the entire section. 

The book must have been written before the 

death of Antiochus, 11:21-45, which occurred 164 

TA ^ A b. c, and before the rededication of the 
Its Date 

temple by Judas Maccabeus, 8: 14, which 

was accomplished in 165, about three and a half 

years, 2300 evenings and mornings, after the 

daily sacrifice at the temple was stopped by 

Antiochus, 8:11. The most probable date is 

between 167 and 165 b. c. 

To the Jews, enduring for the sake of their 
religion the hottest fires of persecution they had 
Its ever known, this book was a message 

Message ^o sus tain their faith against the fierce 
assaults of Antiochus, an assurance that their God 
who reigns always, who had delivered his own 
people in the past, would surely reward their 
fidelity also by speedy deliverance; that the four 
kingdoms, Babylon, Media, Persia, and Greece, 
three of which had already perished while the 
fourth was doomed, would be followed by the 
Kingdom of God which was to be everlasting, 
7:14, 18, 22, 27. 

To us the abiding truth is set forth sublimely 
in this book that human history is proceeding 
according to a divine plan towards a final con- 
summation purposed by God. The desecration 



BOOK OF DANIEL 49 

of holy things and the injustice inflicted on the 
people of God are only forerunners of the time 
when judgment shall be pronounced on the wicked 
and the Kingdom of God shall be supreme, 12:1-3. 



XII 
A GENERAL SURVEY OF "THE WRITINGS " 

Having studied the eleven books of the third 
and latest collection included in the Hebrew 
Scriptures, we are prepared to estimate their 
value and define their use. 

The Psalms are Hebrew in their forms of poetry, 
which is a rhythm of thoughts rather than of 
c words, a response of thought to thought, 

sidered as They are Hebrew in the imagery with 
Separate w hich their thoughts are clothed. But 
they are universal in the experiences 
which they describe and express. They utter the 
elemental emotions of humanity. The supreme 
and eternal God is the object toward whom those 
who wrote and those who use the Psalms are 
always turning, in penitence, petition, praise. 
The deeps of human feeling in these utterances 
respond to the depths of His feeling toward men. 
The Psalter has been described as an instrument 
giving forth "the whole music of the human heart, 
swept by the hand of its Maker." The Psalms 
belong to all humanity in all times and places and 

50 



SURVEY OF THE WRITINGS 51 

will continue to be used as long as the world 
lasts. 

The Proverbs are Hebrew in their language. 
But they are lessons learned in daily life among 
all peoples, especially in its primitive stages. 
They are lessons tested by successive genera- 
tions till they have been molded into the greatest 
terseness. They are the philosophy of the child- 
hood of humanity, being consciously educated 
by God. So long as that education continues 
this text book will be of supreme value for its 
purpose. 

The book of Job deals with the profoundest 
problem connected with man's duty and destiny. 
The cry of the soul out of the depths which this 
book utters is the cry of universal humanity. 
The answer out of the heavens is one for which 
all men listen, though it is now more clearly heard 
and better understood than when the book was 
written. But this record of the experience by 
which one child of God struggling through un- 
fathomed depths of mysterious suffering came at 
last to see God, 42 : 5, 6, is without a parallel in 
the world's literature. 

Important phases of Hebrew national life are 
revealed in the five Rolls. 

The Song of Songs gathers up into a sheaf of 
harmony the simple joyousness of Hebrew country 
life at its climax — the days when love between a 



52 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

man and a woman is crowned with union. Pas- 
sion in pure marriage has never been more 
nobly expressed than in the bride's rhapsody, 
8:6, 7. 

The five poems of the book of Lamentations 
describe the greatest calamity that ever befell 
a nation, pressed down on the soul of the writer 
as a burden of never expiated guilt, both for him- 
self and his people. 

The stories of Ruth and Esther both have as 
their theme the influence of woman's beauty. 
In the first, mercy triumphs over judgment and 
the despised foreigner wins the highest place 
of honor in the nation's history. In the second, 
the vengeance of a weak people triumphs over 
the power of their rulers because they are the 
people of God. 

The book of Ecclesiastes traces the path through 
the entire round of cynicism and skepticism to 
the conclusion that reverence toward God and 
obedience to his will are the only true aim of life. 

Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah furnish the 
historical setting of the spiritual development of 
Judaism and of the library of the Covenant which 
grew toward its completion during the times here 
recorded. 

The book of Daniel is the great apocalypse of 
the old Covenant which sees with confidence into 
the future when the Kingdom of God shall triumph 



SURVEY OF THE WRITINGS 53 

over other kingdoms and be established as the 
one everlasting kingdom. 

For its full interpretation each book needs to 

stand in the place assigned to it in the completed 

library. Take, for example, the six 

si'dered'as P oe tic books which undertake to answer 

Related to the three fundamental questions: What 

Another is God? What is man? What is the 
universe in which they live and act? 

Three of these books are lyric poetry, written 
to be sung with a musical instrument. The 
Psalms express the whole range of human feeling, 
yet their theme is Redemption from sin — man's 
need of it, and God's provision for it. The two 
supreme passions have each one book. The 
theme of the Song of Solomon is the love between 
one man and one woman — the foundation of 
the home and of society. The theme of Lamenta- 
tions is love of country, illustrated by the disaster 
falling on a people of intensest patriotism as a 
consequence of their perversion of that passion. 
The three books are emotional expressions used 
to declare and illustrate the relations between 
God and humanity. 

But such emotional experience must have a 
rational basis, and this is furnished by three books 
of didactic poetry, belonging to the domain of 
reason. The first of these is Proverbs, whose 
thesis is that wisdom is blessedness, and folly is 



54 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

misery. Wisdom is the fear of God and folly is 
disregard of him. Two apparent exceptions to 
this thesis are presented; the first is Job whose 
wisdom does not protect him from the profoundest 
misery, and the second is Ecclesiastes, whose 
hero has everything he desires and cares nothing 
for God. 

But both exceptions are proved only apparent. 
Job holds to the integrity of his manhood and 
remains faithful to God, and his prosperity is 
restored to him in double measure. Koheleth 
has all the wealth he desires and everything that 
can minister to his pleasure, yet in the end he 
finds them all "vanity and a striving after wind," 
and learns that the only value in life is found by 
fearing God and keeping his commandments. 
The supreme theme, Redemption, is interpreted 
by each book in its relation to the others. 

The ruling principle which secured them admis- 
sion into the library of the Covenant was their 
contribution to the meaning of the 
3 *fi d"' Covenant. It is not apparent in every 
Their book, standing by itself. But as inter- 

Relation preted by the church a genuine contri- 
Covenant bution to the meaning of the Covenant 
is made in each book. For example, 
the collection of love songs have become expres- 
sions of the love between God and his people, 
and the interpretation by the church which has 



SURVEY OF THE WRITINGS 55 

decided the character of the books is certainly not 
less inspiration from God than that of the composer 
of the songs and the writers of the books. 

The dates when most of them were written or 
compiled are uncertain. The process of com- 
position of single books, such as Psalms 
sidered'as an( ^ Proverbs, extended over several 
to their hundred years. Portions of them were 
^g^^J.^ regarded as sacred before the books 
were completed. No doubt individual 
Psalms were received as revealing the mind of 
God long before the final collection was made. 

"The Writings" are mentioned by Jewish 
writers in the second century before Christ along 
with the Law and the Prophets. But the Writings 
were never regarded as of equal authority with 
the Law. Eminent rabbis disputed the claim of 
the Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, and Esther to a 
place in the canon of the Scriptures. 

The Jewish synod assembled about 90 a. d. at 
Jamnia, not far from Joppa, approved all the 
thirty-nine books now included in the Old Testa- 
ment. 



PART TWO 
THE PROPHETS 



THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BIBLE 

Three stages must be kept in mind in the 
study of the making of the Bible : first, the period 
Stages of in which the Hebrew literature began; 
Growth second, the period in which that litera- 
ture took shape in books edited and revised till 
they came into their final form; and third, their 
collection into a library and elevation to the place 
of Holy Scripture. 

The first period in the history of Hebrew litera- 
ture was like that of our own and other nations. 
M t • i The Hebrews from Egypt settled in 
for Palestine somewhere about the year 

National i^QO b. c. Their language was proba- 
bly adopted from the Canaanites whom 
they conquered. But their national conscious- 
ness, which must have preceded their literature, 
seems hardly to have begun to develop till the 
union of the tribes under David, about the year 
1000 b. c. They inherited, however, traditions 
of a distant past and various literary materials 
from peoples out of whom they had sprung. The 

59 



60 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

national literature grew from these materials as 
beginnings. They may be classed as: 

1. Songs. The earliest permanent literary ex- 
pressions of national life are stories of brave deeds 
Songs of of love and war, often in the form of 
Heroes ballads. Of lost collections of such 
ballads, two are mentioned in the Bible. One 
was called the Book of the Wars of Jehovah, from 
which several songs are quoted, Num. 21:14, 15, 
17, 18, 27-30. They described how the leaders 
fought for Israel and how their God helped them. 
The other was called the Book of Jashar, (the 
Upright Ones). Its songs were descriptions of 
heroes whose greatness was measured by their 
devotion to Jehovah. Joshua quoted from it 
when he celebrated his triumph over the Amorites, 
Josh. 10:12, 13. It is named as the source from 
which David's elegy over Saul and Jonathan was 
taken, 2 Sam. 1 :18-27. Many noble songs from 
various sources have been preserved in the sacred 
books of Hebrews, e.g. the triumph songs of Moses, 
Ex. 15:1-18, of Deborah, Jud. 5:1-31, and the 
songs of Balaam, Num. 24:3-9, 15-24. 

These songs were used for the religious instruc- 
tion of the people, Deut. 31:19, 22, 30; 2 Sam. 
1:18. 

2. Stories and legends. Among the earliest 
questions arising in the minds of a people coming 
into a national consciousness are those which con- 



BEGINNINGS OF THE BIBLE 61 

cern their ancestry, the reasons for their being, and 
their mission. In the Orient even to this day 
Stories of such questions are answered by story tell- 
Heroes ers rehearsing stories they have learned 
from others, handed down from generation to 
generation. Thus stories of hero ancestors — 
Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, Saul, 
David, and other men of olden time came into the 
form of vivid dramatic pictures with a charm 
unsurpassed in all literature. 

These stories were told to instruct the people 
concerning the care of Jehovah for them and his 
guidance in making them a nation. 

3. Laws. At first the laws of the Hebrews 
were simple rules necessary for the worship of 
Earliest their God, for mutual protection, for 
Laws purposes of health, and for defence against 

enemies. Such rules were recognized as of divine 
authority before any formal collection was made 
of them; e.g. long before the law was issued 
at Sinai its commands were known. The Sabbath 
was to be kept, Gen. 2:3; murder, Gen. 9:6, 
theft, Gen. 31:32, adultery, Gen. 20:3, were for- 
bidden. Many collections of laws were made 
before any were permanently preserved. 

The Decalogue, probably the earliest collection 
in the Bible, written on tables of stone, has come 
down to us in different forms, Ex. 34:17-27; 
20:1-17, Deut. 5:4-22. Three successive stages 



62 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

are illustrated by the three ancient codes, The 
Book of the Covenant, Ex. 20:20-23:33, The 
Deuteronomic Code, Deut. chs. 12-26, The Law 
of Holiness, Lev. chs. 17-26. 

4. History. The historical books of the Bible 
are compilations of preceding histories, the method 
Bible and purpose of which will be considered 
History m the nex t chapter. They belong to 
a later period of literature than the composition 
of ballads, stories, and laws. 

5. Prophecy. Sermons, essays, and poems con- 
sidering the problems developed in settled society 
Writings and the duties of men toward one another 
of Prophets anc [ toward God in such society belong 
to the later periods of literature. The prophets 
of Israel were the literary men and the teachers 
of their times. Their sayings and writings are 
the principal subjects for study in the chapters 
that follow. 

Thus the Hebrew literature, out of which the 
books of the Covenant were selected for the 
sacred library, grew from songs, folk lore, laws, 
historic records, essays, sermons, and epistles. 



II 

THE PROPHETIC BOOKS 

The Prophets of the Bible were men of God, 
1 Sam. 2:27; 9:6; 1 Kings 12:22; 2 Kings 4:21; 
Who were servants of Jehovah, Isa. 20:3; Jer. 
the 25:4; messengers of Jehovah, Isa. 42:19, 

Prophets Hag 1:13 They brought the message 

or word of God to men as his representatives. 
The word of God came to them, Jer. 14:1; 15:1; 
Zech. 8:1, and they delivered it, Am. 1:3, 6, 9, etc. 
They were thus divinely commissioned preachers 
of righteousness to individuals, and to the na- 
tion. They saw God, Isa. 6:1, with spiritual 
vision and apprehended his will. The predictive 
element was a minor one in the prophets' mis- 
sion. They were the religious teachers of Israel. 

The Historical Books of the Old Testament were 
written for the purpose of conveying religious 

t. instruction. Their authors used the 

Purpose 

of the events of history to show how God 
Historical care d f or hi s people, how he rewarded 
loyalty to Himself and punished dis- 
obedience, therefore the writers of these books 

63 



64 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

were prophets. Records of the history of the 
human race and of Israel existed before the books 
of the Bible were written, 1 Kings 11:41; 14:29. 
Their authors selected such records of facts and 
events as would reveal the presence and work of 
Jehovah fulfilling the promises made in his Covenant 
with his people. 

Hence we find certain events dwelt on with 
abundant details, such as the first observance of 
Use of tne Passover, the crossing of the Red 
Historic Sea, the construction of the tabernacle 
and the dedication of the temple, while 
long periods of time are passed by with only brief 
mention or none. Hence also the same event is 
sometimes repeated in different ways to direct atten- 
tion to the lesson the prophet desires to impress. 

These statements account for the fact that the 
Jews did not call any of their Holy Scriptures 
histories. The books of the first library of the 
Covenant they called The Law, while all those 
of the second were called The Prophets, Matt. 
7:12; 5:17; 22:40. 

The historical books of the second library 
were called The Former Prophets; Joshua, Judges, 
Samuel, Kings. The study of the struc- 
of the ture of the Former Prophets involves 
Former a i so that of the books of the first 
library. Four narratives, once distinct, 
are blended in these books. 



THE PROPHETIC BOOKS 65 

The oldest prophetic history of Israel appears 
to have been written in Judah. It traces the 
The history of the human race from the 

Judaistic Creation and of the Hebrew people 

is ory f rom Abraham down to the time of 
Solomon, therefore it could not have been written 
until after the division of the Kingdom. It was 
probably not earlier than 825 b. c. The writers 
used ancient songs, stories of heroes, collections 
of laws, general and local traditions, and prevalent 
views of God, man and the universe, modifying 
them in accordance with their own high ideals 
of the character of God and of his relations with 
Israel. They aimed to set forth the historic 
foundations of the Covenant between Jehovah and 
his people. 

The Northern Prophetic History was prepared 
in a similar way and with the same purpose, 
The probably about half a century later, 

Ephraimite by prophets of the northern kingdom, 

1S ory which was often called Ephraim, Hos. 
5:11-14. Their history began with Abraham and 
recorded the important events in Israel to the 
establishment of the monarchy under Saul. 

These two histories were blended about a century 
The Two a ft er the fall of the northern kingdom, 

Histories which occurred in 722 B. c, 2 Kings 
Blended 17:5 6 Thig wQrk wag done by ft 

prophet or group of prophets about the time 



66 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

of the great reformation of Josiah, 621 b. c, 2 

Kings, ch. 22. 

A brief priestly history was written during 

the captivity in Babylon under the influence of 

The changed views as illustrated in the 

Priestly prophecy of Ezekiel and the accounts 
History of ^ WQrk of Ezra ^ gcribe The ten _ 

dency of the time was to idealize the early days 
and heroes of Israel and to trace back to them the 
law and ritual of later Judaism. This work out- 
lined the history down to the conquest of Canaan. 

The final blending of the combined prophetic 
and the priestly histories produced the five books 
The of the Law, that is, the Pentateuch, 

Hexateuch an( j t ne \y 00 k f Joshua. These six 
books together are called the Hexateuch. This 
blending also points out the method of the produc- 
tion of the other books of the Former Prophets. 
The Judean and Ephraimite histories are traceable 
in the earlier part of the book of Samuel. The 
influence of the book of Deuteronomy, published 
in Judah 621 b. c, was marked especially on 
Joshua and the historical books following it, as 
will be shown in later chapters. 

The Latter Prophets follow in order of arrange- 

The ment those called the Former Prophets, 

Latter though many of them are of earlier 

rop ets ^ates t han the first four books of the 

second library. They are mainly collections of 



THE PROPHETIC BOOKS 67 

reports of sermons delivered on occasions of 
great importance in the nation's history, with 
some epistles and historical records. 

The four collections of the Latter Prophets 
appear under the titles Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 
and the Twelve. 



Ill 

THE BOOK OF JOSHUA 

The book of Joshua was placed by the Jews 
first in order in the library of the Prophets. It 
The Book is closely affiliated with the library of 
of Joshua f ne L aw> as describing the fulfillment of 
Jehovah's promise of the Covenant to establish 
Israel in the promised land. It existed for a 
long time beside the Law library but without 
being admitted into it. 

Its subject was the conquest of Canaan. The 
earliest traditions of the descendants of Abraham 
The had claimed that land as Jehovah's 

Subject g if t to t hem, Gen. 15:18; Ex. 23: 20-33; 
Deut. 11:24. The story of Joshua was the com- 
plement of the books of the Law, a true and na- 
tional product of the patriotic religious spirit 
which ascribed to the favor of Jehovah all the 
possessions of Israel. 

Its hero was Joshua, the captain of Jehovah's 
Th host, always obedient to the one su- 

Choice and preme Hero of all the Holy Scriptures, 
Traini £S Josh. 5.13-15. He is introduced as the 
chosen successor of the first leader and 
lawgiver of the Hebrews, commissioned by him to 



THE BOOK OF JOSHUA 69 

bring them into the promised land, Deut. 31:23. 
The work that Moses the man of God laid down 
was taken up by Joshua, with the consent of the 
people, Deut. 34: 9. Moses had trained Joshua as 
his lieutenant, Ex. 17:8-10; 33:11; and Jehovah 
confirmed the commission given by Moses, Josh. 
1:1-9. 

Its contents are in three clearly marked divis- 
ions: the conquest of the land, chs. 1-12; the 
Contents division of the land among the tribes, 
of the chs. 13-21; the conclusion of the book, 
describing a dispute between the tribes 
on the west of the Jordan and those on the east, 
and its settlement, ch. 22, and two closing ad- 
dresses of Joshua to the tribes concerning the 
Covenant, chs. 23, 24. 

The book contains stirring and picturesque 
descriptions of heroic deeds and marvelous ad- 
Its ventures, which though told in prose 
Literary are poetic in spirit rather than exact 

aracter n j s f- or y # Examples in the first division 
are the stories of Rahab and the spies, the carry- 
ing of the ark of the Covenant across the Jordan, 
the circumcision of the people at Gilgal, the capture 
of Jericho, the crime and destruction of Achan 
and his family before the city of Ai, the strategy 
of the Gibeonites, the battles of Beth-horon and 
Makkedah. These stories are followed by a 
mathematical summary of the results of the 



70 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

conquest in ch. 12, and two accounts of distri- 
butions of territory by lot to the twelve tribes, 
chs. 13-17, 18-21. There is a circumstantial 
statement in ch. 22 of the trouble between the 
western tribes and the two and a half eastern 
tribes because the latter had built a great altar, 
22: 10, which the former thought was a step toward 
setting up a new religion, 22:16. The explana- 
tion given was satisfactory and the threatened 
war was averted, 22:26-29, 33. The two ad- 
dresses of Joshua, chs. 23, 24, differ so notably 
in point of view and in style that they strongly 
suggest different authors. An appendix, 24 : 29-33, 
records the burial of the body of Joshua and of 
the bones of Joseph and Eleazar. 

Several documents have been brought together 
and edited to make this book, all of them written 
Structure several generations after the events 
of the occurred. Prominent among them are 
the two histories of the Judean and 
northern kingdoms, described in the last chapter. 
The combination has been modified by an editor 
writing in the spirit of the book of Deuteronomy, 
who idealized the history and made it fulfill the 
divine purpose as it had been declared. For 
example, since God had commanded Israel to 
destroy the Canaanites utterly, Deut. 7 : 2, the 
Deuteronomic editor described Israel as doing 
this, Josh. 11:12-15. In one of Joshua's farewell 



THE BOOK OF JOSHUA 71 

addresses it is declared that the native tribes of 
Canaan have all been driven out, 24:11-13; in 
the other the work is still unfinished, 23:5-8. 
But other records showed that they were never 
wholly driven out, Jud. 3:1-6. 

Its historic value is to be estimated with a 
due sense of the prevailing method in early times 
Its to recount the nation's progress for the 

Historic purpose of exalting the power and 
enforcing the commands of Jehovah. 
Read as a plain record of facts this book has many 
inconsistencies and confusing statements. For 
example, in 8:3, 4 there are 30,000 men for ambush 
against Ai; in 8:12 they are 5,000. In 10:40-42 
all the South country is conquered and every 
living thing destroyed. In 14 : 6-15 that country, 
still unconquered, is given to Caleb because he 
is able to drive out the people, and he does it, 
15:13-19. 

But read as a poetic description of great events 
in the progress of Israel the book contains historic 
History information of great value. The events 
used as actually occurred. The ideals, the ethi- 
cal and spiritual truths they are used to 
illustrate, are of the greatest abiding value, setting 
forth the character and will of God as he revealed 
himself to Israel in the formative period of the 
nation. 

The geographical descriptions in this book 



72 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

require a study of Palestine and the surrounding 
Its Intro- countries. A clear idea should be gained 
duction to of the land promised, Gen. 15:18-21, 
Canaan and to be possessed) j os}l . 13:L The 

territory promised stretched from the Lebanon 
mountains on the north to the Desert of Paran 
on the south, and from the Mediterranean Sea 
to the Euphrates River. The 'portion mainly 
occupied by the Israelites, however, was about 
180 miles from north to south and from thirty to 
fifty miles in breadth. The physical structure 
of the country also, its plains and mountains, 
rivers and lakes and climate have an important 
part in the study of the making of the Bible. 

The people of mixed character with whom the 
Hebrews mingled and whom they supplanted, 
Ex. 23: 23, Josh. 24: 11, had much to do in shaping 
Hebrew literature. A map, a chronological table, 
and a modern Bible dictionary are essential to a 
knowledge of the history of the Hebrew Scriptures. 



IV 

THE BOOK OF JUDGES 

In this book are the most natural and lifelike 

pictures to be found in the Old Testament of 

mi. -o t the primitive life and customs of the 
The Book r „ J ._._-. ... 

clans and tribes in Palestine which 

finally came to be welded into the nation of 
Israel. 

The object of the writer and compiler is first 
of all to impress the truth that Jehovah rewards 
T ,. his chosen people for loyalty to him 
and surely punishes them for disobedi- 
ence to him. With this purpose in view he records 
such currently reported events in their early 
history as will best illustrate and emphasize his 
message. His often repeated refrain is, "The 
children of Israel did that which was evil in the 
sight of Jehovah:" 2:11; 3:7, 12; 4:1 etc. Then 
follows the statement: "Therefore the anger of 
Jehovah was kindled against Israel." The next 
step is "when the children of Israel cried unto 
Jehovah, Jehovah raised them up a savior." The 
saviors were the judges, of whom twelve are named, 
one for each tribe. 

73 



74 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

Four appearances of the Angel of the Covenant 
are recorded, bringing messages of judgments 
The Four an< ^ deliverances: at Bochim, 2:1-5; 
Great at Ophrah, 6:11 ff; at Zorah, 13:2-5; 

Events and at Bethel, 20:18, 27, 28. These 
were the four greatest events in a period apparently 
of some three hundred years, which probably how- 
ever was not more than half of that time. The 
entire history is recorded as a process many times 
repeated of sin, rebuke, punishment, and rescue. 

The materials of the book were not originally 
intended for this purpose. They are mainly 
Its folk stories of a primitive time, some 

Structure f them without religious teaching in 
themselves, picturing the tribes of Israel coming 
into a land already populated, held together by 
loose bonds, gradually acquiring supremacy and 
approaching toward unity through several gene- 
rations by means of wars, chs. 4, 5, stratagems, 
ch. 9, and social alliances, 3: 5, 6, with neighboring 
peoples. 

The book appears to have begun at 2:6, where 
the first four verses repeat in a different order the 
close of Joshua, 24 : 28-31. A general introduction, 
2 : 6-3 : 6 explains the religious meaning found by 
the writer in the stories that follow. Next are 
recounted the brave deeds of the judges, who were 
leaders of their own tribes, though often spoken 
of as though they were national rulers. 



BOOKOFJUDGES 75 

The most famous of these leaders were Othniel 
of Judah, 3:9-11, Ehud of Benjamin 3:12-30, 
Barak of Naphtali, 4:1-5:31, Gideon of Manasseh, 
6:1-9: 32, Jephthah of Gad, 10 : 6-12 : 7, and Samson 
of Dan, 13:1-16:31. The episode of Abimelech 
presents a series of vivid dramatic pictures, ch. 9. 
The opening section, chs. 1 : 1-2 : 5, is of different 
character from the book itself, compare 1 : 1 with 
2:6, 7, and appears to have been taken from an 
older account of the conquest of Canaan by Israel. 

Two appendices have been added to the book. 
The first, chs. 17, 18, accounts for the migration of 
the tribe of Dan from the plain of Sharon to the 
foot of Mt. Hermon, and for the founding of the 
sanctuary at that place. Chs. 19-21 are a story 
of lust and cruelty avenged in an uprising of all 
the tribes by which the tribe of Benjamin was 
almost annihilated. Such a united movement 
at that time seems hardly probable, but the story 
testifies to a quickening moral sense in Israel. 

The life of the people during those early times 
is vividly pictured in these ancient tales. Several 
j ts versions of the same story no doubt 

Literary existed, and the case of Gideon illus- 
trates the blending of two of them while 
the victory of Deborah and Barak is told in prose 
in ch. 4 and in poetry in ch. 5. This poem is 
perhaps the oldest in the Bible and in spite of an 
imperfect text is one of the finest in all literature. 



76 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

Read it carefully: the introduction, vs. 2, 3, the 
coming from Mount Seir of Jehovah on the scene 
vs. 4, 5, the conditions before the war, vs. 6-10, 
the rally around Deborah and Barak, vs. ll-15a, 
the cowardly tribes that stayed at home, 15b-17, 
the brave tribes that came to the front, v. 18, 
the battle, vs. 19-22; the curse on the people of 
one town who did not intercept the fleeing foe 
v. 23, the eulogy of the woman who slew the 
Canaanite leader, vs. 24-31, the terrible disap- 
pointment awaiting the Canaanites, vs. 28-30, and 
the triumphant conclusion, v. 31. 

It should be noted that these ancient stories 
and poems were not composed with any thought 
The that they would become part of a col- 

Historical lection of books regarded as a revelation 
from God. Yet they bear their own 
witness that they are genuine pictures of the 
developing life of the people through whom mankind 
has received the supreme revelation from God. 
They show us the working of influences and forces 
guided by him to train spiritual eyes to see and 
know him. 

The moral standards of Christianity are far 
higher than those of the times of the Judges or of 
The the author of this book. The treacher- 

Ethical ous deed of Jael, 4:17-21, would not 
Value now warrant the tribute in 5:24-27. 
Gideon is not in all respects an ideal hero, 8:18-21, 



BOOK OF JUDGES 77 

29-32. The crowning act of Jephthah as a tribute 
to God for his deliverance is utterly revolting to 
us, 11 : 30, 31, 39. Samson is an immoral character 
whose physical strength and wit gave popularity 
to the stories about him. 

But the essence of the religion of these primitive 
Hebrews was loyalty to Jehovah, expressed in ways 
which they thought pleasing to him. Through 
that loyalty the nation was led by him into the 
religion of love, mercy and duty which was revealed 
through later prophets inspired by him. 



V 

THE BOOK OF SAMUEL 

The two books called Samuel were one in the 

Hebrew Bible. The title was evidently given to 

*im- *n.xt it because it was the name of the most 
fne litle . . 

prominent person in the nrst sixteen 
chapters. Samuel has been called its author, 
but this was impossible, 1 Sam. 25:1. 

The period of Hebrew history covered by this 
book is approximately a century, from about 
1070 to 970 b. c. The first exact date known in 
Hebrew history is 854 b. c, when an inscription 
by Shalmaneser II records that Ahab was among 
the kings defeated by him at the battle of Karkar. 
This book traces the course of progress of the 
Hebrews from a loose conglomeration of tribes, 
sometimes warring against one another, to a united 
nation under King David. 

The contents may be divided as follows : 1 Sam. 
chs. 1-7; Samuel as a child in the tabernacle, 
Its 1 : 24, prophet 3 : 20, 21, judge 7 : 6, and 

Contents pr i est 7:10 . Chs. 8-15, the rise of the 
monarchy with Saul; chs. 16-31, the career of 

78 



THE BOOK OF SAMUEL 79 

David to the death of Saul. 2 Sam. chs. 1-4, 
David, king of Judah; chs. 5-20, David, king of all 
Israel. Chs. 21-24, an appendix, which includes 
two stories belonging in the early part of David's 
reign, 21:1-14; 24:1-25; two psalms, ch. 22 (com- 
pare Psalm 18); 23:1-7, called the farewell words 
of David, and two lists of his heroes and their 
deeds, 21:15-22; 23:8-39. 

It is evident that at least two distinct histories 
are combined, and that they both extend as far 
Its Com- as the end of 2 Sam. ch. 8. A few 
position illustrations will suffice to show the 
diverse sources. 1 Sam. ch. 8 gives the view of 
a writer opposed to the establishment of a mon- 
archy; 9:1-17 gives the view of one who favors 
it. Compare the two accounts of the introduction 
of David to Saul, 16:17-22, and 17:31-37, 55-58; 
of the rejection of Saul, 13:8-15 and 15:1-35; 
and of David sparing Saul in chs. 24 and 26. 
Various documents written at different times 
have been brought together with modifications 
and additions by editors through successive ages 
till after the exile. These documents included 
an ancient biography of Saul, another of David, 
probably another of Samuel with miscellaneous 
materials. 

The book is the product of men living through 
an extended period of Hebrew history, as the 
Psalms are the product of a long period of relig- 



80 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

ious experience, and the Proverbs of many genera- 
tions of practical observation of the conduct of 
j ts life. Its character studies of Samuel, Saul, 

Historical David and other heroes are unrivalled 
a ue in literature. We see them as they 

lived. Samuel the seer, moving from district 
to district, greeted with awe and expectancy, Saul 
the splendid yet moody and jealous chief, David 
the winsome boy, the brave warrior, the idol of 
his followers, the religious enthusiast capable of 
the noblest and also most dastardly deeds — when 
these biographic pictures are seen separated from 
the interpretations or additions of editors, they 
live with inexhaustible vitality. 

This book is a record of the religious progress 
of Israel under the leadership of early priests and 
Its Relig- prophets. The age of Saul and David 
ious Use was brutal and the Hebrew people and 
kindred tribes believed that their gods were 
appeased by cruel acts often inflicted on innocent 
persons. Such an act was David's bloody sacri- 
fice of seven of the brothers of Jonathan, five of 
them children of his first wife or her sister, 
2 Sam. 21 : 1-14. But David's treatment of Jona- 
than himself is a story of noble friendship unsur- 
passed in history. The ethical interest rises to 
its climax in the message of the prophet Nathan 
to David, 2 Sam. 12: 1-15, and the Nemesis that 
from that time to his death haunted his reign. 



THE BOOK OF SAMUEL 81 

This book is the record of the progress of Israel, 
the people of Jehovah, from a race of hunted 
peasants to a united nation ruling the land from 
the Mediterranean to the Euphrates. 



VI 
THE BOOK OF KINGS 

The authorship of the book of Kings has been 
indicated in the study of the book of Samuel. 
The It is one book in the Hebrew, is a con- 

Authors tinuation of Samuel without any line 
of division, and is edited in the same spirit. 

The history extends over about 400 years: 
the appointment of Solomon as successor of 
Its David, and his reign, chs. 1-11; his- 

Contents t orv f ^ ne ^ wo kingdoms from the 
division at the death of Solomon to the final 
destruction of Israel, 1 Kings, ch. 12, 2 Kings 
ch. 17; the history of Judah from the capture of 
Samaria by Shalmaneser IV and Sargon, kings of 
Assyria, 722 b. c, to the destruction of Jerusalem 
by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, 586 b. c. and 
at least twenty-five years after, 2 Kings 25 : 27-30. 

Three books are cited as authorities: 1 Kings 
11:41; 14:19; 15:31, etc; 14:29; 15:7, 23, etc. 
Its Com- Other works no doubt were in part incor- 
position porated, such as popular collections of 
stories of Elijah and Elisha, chronicles of the 

82 



THE BOOK OF KINGS 83 

northern and southern kingdoms, perhaps a biog- 
raphy of Isaiah, and official documents. 

The aim of the author is to give the history of 
both nations, measuring the time of each reign 
in one kingdom by the contemporaneous reign 
in the other. The name of each king is given, 
the name of his mother or father, the length of 
his reign and his death. In most cases also some 
chief events during his reign are mentioned and 
an opinion is recorded concerning his character, 
e.g. 1 Kings 15:1-8. 

Its purpose is the same as that of the other 
Former Prophets, Joshua, Judges and Samuel, 
Its to enforce the duty of obedience to 

Purpose Jehovah. But this purpose is much 
more prominent and definite than in the preceding 
books. Laws of Jehovah had been promulgated 
which were not known when the materials of the 
other books were produced. For example, wor- 
ship and sacrifice to Jehovah on certain high 
places made sacred by long use for that purpose 
were regarded as lawful and right up to the time 
of Josiah. The greatest heroes of the nation 
offered worship at these places for which they 
received special tokens of divine favor, such as 
Solomon at Gibeah, 1 Kings 3 : 4 ff . and Elijah at 
Carmel, 1 Kings 18:31-40. But the book of 
Deuteronomy, adopted as Jehovah's law during 
the reign of Josiah, aimed to concentrate all 



84 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

public worship around the temple at Jerusalem. 
All the other sanctuaries were condemned by it, 
Deut. 12:1-14. 

The book of Kings was edited in sympathy with 
that law. Therefore in it kings are rated for 
I ts excellence according to their treatment 

Estimate of these high places. The great sin of 
ngs Jeroboam, the founder of the northern 
kingdom, was his establishment of worship at 
the two ancient high places, Bethel and Dan, 1 
Kings 12:29-31. The condemnation of that act 
stretches over the whole history of Israel, 1 Kings 
16: 2, 19, 26, 31, etc. Hezekiah, 2 Kings 18: 2-6, 
and Josiah, 2 Kings 23:8, 15, 2 Chron. 35:25-27 
were great because they abolished the ancient 
sanctuaries. Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoash and Am- 
aziah were good kings but not altogether per- 
fect, because they did not take away the high 
places, 1 Kings 15:14, 22:43, 2 Kings 12:2, 3; 
14:3, 4. 

As an example of the biographies and the pur- 
pose of recording them read 1 Kings 22:41-50. 
Note that here as in other places no detailed 
reasons are given for the judgment passed on the 
king, but it is intimated that the judgment is 
warranted by material before the eyes of the 
author of the history to which his readers also 
had access, v. 45. The book of Kings is rather 
of the nature of a sermon than a history. 



THE BOOK OF KINGS 85 

Facts of history are used to show that the 
worship of Jehovah at the temple in Jerusalem 
Its was the one object of supreme impor- 

Historic tance. The work of kings and the 
movements of the nation are measured 
with reference to this object. Israel according 
to the compiler of Kings was destroyed because 
of neglect of this worship, 2 Kings 17:16-18. 
This purpose determined what facts were to be 
given and how they were to be told. 

Yet this book furnishes us in connection with 
the books of the prophets almost all the light we 
have on the history of Israel for four centuries. 
We shall refer to it frequently in connection with 
our study of the prophets. For that reason a 
more detailed analysis of the book is not here 
given. 



VII 
THE LATTER PROPHETS 

In ch. 2 of Part II the function of the Hebrew 
prophets was briefly described, and the purpose 
of the historical books of the second library of 
the Covenant. These are Joshua, Judges, Samuel 
and Kings. Their authors make use of the history 
of the Hebrews for religious instruction concerning 
the character of God and men's duties to him. 
The remaining four books of this library are in 
the main direct appeals to rulers and people to 
influence their conduct in crises of history. 

The distinctive character of the books of the 
Latter Prophets is found in the fact that they 
Their are mam ty sermons and addresses, often 

Literary in poetic form, sometimes joined to- 

arac er ggfj^j. ^y b r i e f accounts of their authors 
and of the conditions in which they spoke. They 
express also the deeper experiences not only of 
individuals but of the nation. While they are 
prompted by occasions and deal chiefly with 
their own times, they rest on fundamental princi- 
ples, truths concerning God and men and their 
relations with one another abiding in all ages. 

86 



THE LATTER PROPHETS 87 

They have been vaguely understood by most 
readers of the Bible until recent years, because the 
historic conditions which make their sayings 
intelligible have been little known. But the nature 
and effect of their teachings have clearly demon- 
strated that they were "men who spake from God, 
being moved by the Holy Spirit," 2 Pet. 1:21. 

No writings of prophets are found in the second 
library earlier than the time of the division of 
The Rise the kingdom. But the spirit of prophecy 
of Proph- appeared in the earliest life of the 
etism Hebrews. Moses and Aaron were 

prophets of God, Ex. 4:10-15; 7:1. There were 
many prophets in the camp of the Israelites in 
their wanderings, Num. 11:25-29. 

The time of Samuel was the beginning of a 
new prophetic era, Acts 3:24. When he entered 
Methods on ms m i ss i° n genuine prophecies were 
of Proph- rare, 1 Sam. 3:1. But the number 
esying Q £ p r0 p ne ^ s increased and they formed 
bands or guilds, 1 Sam. 10:5, 6; 19:20. Some- 
times they were employed as fortune tellers and 
received fees for their services. 1 Sam. 9:5-10; 

1 Kings 14:1-4. Sometimes they used music 
as a means of kindling inspiration. 1 Sam. 10:5; 

2 Kings 3:14, 15; 1 Chron. 25:3. In process of 
time prophets of Jehovah came to be recognized 
as receiving from him special knowledge, and as 
trustworthy guides for kings and people. 



88 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

They were a class by themselves, highly honored 
in the Hebrew community. They were probably 
The as numerous at some periods as clergy- 

Prophetic men are in our day. David had several 
at his court, of whom Nathan and Gad 
are named. Ahab had 400 whom he could call in 
for counsel, 1 Kings 22:5, 6. Sometimes they did 
not agree in the advice they gave, 1 Kings 22 :11, 12, 
23, 24. Most of those whose careers are told in the 
Bible, from Elijah to John the Baptist, were men 
opposed to current beliefs, who suffered much 
because of their loyalty to their convictions. 

The mission of the Hebrew Prophets was to 
represent the will of Jehovah to men. They were 
Their speakers for God, taught and commis- 

Mission sioned by him, and their work was 
unique in the history of mankind. They revolu- 
tionized the religion of Israel. 

Elijah is the noblest illustration of the earlier 
prophets, "a mighty man of God." His name 
which meant "Jehovah is my God," was a chal- 
lenge, as if he would say, "Who is your god?" 
Read 1 Kings chs. 17-19, 21. 

To the prophets we are indebted for the Bible. 

Th They kept the annals and wrote the his- 

Writings lories of the nation . 1 Chron. 29:29. 

of the B u t especially they were the creators, as 

Prophets T , \, J \ . . - . , 

Jehovah s representatives, oj true ana 

high ideals, with a holy passion to realize them. 



THE LATTER PROPHETS 89 

They brought to men a new era of ethical purity 
and social justice, an era of constructive religious 
thinking perhaps unsurpassed in the history of 
the world. The proof of this is to be found in 
the results of their work increasing through the 
ages. Their teachings are the foundations of the 
faith of the Christian world to-day. 

The sermons of the prophets were perhaps as 
frequently preserved and read as those of ministers 
in our time, though only in manuscript. But the 
collections of these sermons in the library of the 
Covenant are the sifted product of more than five 
centuries, a period as long as the entire history of 
the growth of English literature. 

In the four collections we are now to examine, 
the names of fourteen prophets are preserved as 
preachers of the sermons, and there are brief 
sketches of the characters and careers of some 
of them. Of some, however, we know only the 
names, and several of the sermons are by preachers 
whose names are unknown. 



VIII 
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 

The book of Isaiah is not the oldest in the 
collection of the Latter Prophets. It is put first 
Isaiah the in our study because Isaiah is the 
Prophet central figure of prophecy, because the 
sayings collected under his name extend through 
several centuries, and because it ranks first in 
grandeur of themes, profound insight, majesty 
of diction and splendor of imagery. 

On the first examination three sections of the 
book are noted. The first, chs. 1-35, belongs 
The mainly to a period in the history of the 

General kingdom of Judah during four reigns, 
1:1. The second is probably an extract 
from a biography of Isaiah which was also in- 
corporated into the book of Kings. Compare 
Isa. chs. 36-39 with 2 Kings 18:13-20:19. The 
third section is a collection of addresses to the 
Jews near the close of their captivity in Babylon, 
chs. 40-55, and some seventy years and more after 
that time, chs. 56-66. 

Note that these addresses as reported are brief 

90 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 91 

abstracts, with great themes on great occasions. 
The overthrow of the Assyrians is an example, 
Distinctive 17:12-14. Note the seven sermons 
Features against seven sins; covetousness for 
land, 5:8-10; drinking and dissipation, 5:11-17; 
contempt for God, 5:18, 19; moral perversion 
5:20; self-confidence, 5:21; civic corruption, 
5:22, 23; oppression with unjust legislation, 
10:1, 2. 

Sometimes one brief abstract is the only record 
preserved for an entire year, e.g. the warning to 
the Philistines, 14:28-32. Yet these abstracts 
are usually in poetic form, and appear to have 
been spoken by the prophet and afterward written 
by himself or by his disciples, 8:16; 30:8. 

They are not in chronological order, e.g. Isaiah's 
call and commission would naturally be placed 
first, 6:1-13. 

The chapter divisions are arbitrary, sometimes 
separating an address into two portions, e.g. 
the poem on the Doom of Israel has four stanzas, 
the first beginning with 9:8, each ending with the 
same refrain, "For all this his anger is not turned 
away," etc., 9:12, 17, 21; 10:4. Apparently 
also one stanza of this poem was inserted in ch. 
5:24,25. 

These great prophecies can be understood 
only imperfectly apart from the history out of 
which they sprang. A map is indispensable, in- 



92 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

eluding the principal countries of the ancient 
world. Locate Israel and Judah with Philistia 
Political and other small nations, along and near 
Conditions ^he Mediterranean coast, Syria to the 
north and Assyria beyond the Euphrates River to 
the northeast. Then note Egypt to the southwest, 
and that between Assyria and Egypt, almost 
always fighting each other, along the road on which 
their armies must pass to and fro, lay Israel and 
Judah and the neighboring little kingdoms, alter- 
nately the prey of the one or the other. 

Study a history of the period from the beginning 
of the reign of Shalmaneser II over Assyria, 
860 b. c, to the downfall of that empire, 607 b. c. 
Isaiah's public career extended from about 740 
to 701 b. c. Head 2 Kings, chs. 15-21, 2 Chron. 
chs. 26-33. Read also the prophecies of the 
invasion of Judah by Assyria, Isa. 8:5-8; the doom 
of the Assyrian, 10:5-34; the doom of Egypt 
19:1-15; the folly of Judah making alliance with 
Egypt, 20:1-6; 28:14-22; 30:1-17; 31:1-4. These 
passages illustrate perils to which Judah was 
exposed from both Assyria and Egypt, and 
Isaiah's efforts to save his country from both. 

Judah had been very prosperous under Uzziah, 
The Moral ^ Chron. 26:6-15. But with prosper- 
and Social ity came oppression of the poor by 
Conditions the fichj S:U; 5:g . grogs i n j ustice 

by rulers, 1:21-23, the growth of drunkenness 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 93 

among the upper classes, 5:11, 12; 28:7, 8; crass 
materialism and idolatry, 2:6-8. Alongside of 
these conditions an ostentatious piety flourished, 
with many offerings of animals in sacrifice, abun- 
dant prayers, 2:11-15, and constant indifference 
to common honesty and kindness, 5:7. 

No nobler character appears in the Hebrew 
Scriptures than this prophet. He was a man of 
Isaiah as impressive personality, of high social 
a Man position, sl companion and counselor 
of kings. His leading characteristics are brought 
out in his account of his call to the prophetic 
office: his steadfast confidence in the sovereignty, 
holiness and covenant-keeping faithfulness of Je- 
hovah, 6:1-13. He saw God, saw his great world 
plan, and in the midst of tumults and terrors 
stood unshaken and serene, 7:9; 28:16; 30:15. 

His style is nobly human, and will greatly repay 
study for its literary qualities, while the preacher's 
As a acquaintance with every phase of life 

Preacher mus t have brought him into close 
contact with all classes of hearers. He under- 
stood the habits of birds, 16:2; 31:5; 38:14; of 
hunted animals, 13:14, and of those in domestic 
service, 1:3. He was familiar with the growth 
of trees, 7:2; 10:19; 11:1. He was at home with 
the carpenter at his work, the builder, the farmer, 
the vinedresser. Nor was he less at home with 
statesmen and kings. 



94 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

his writings his description of A Day of Divine 

Judgment, 2:12-21, of the coming of the Assyrian 

Army, 5:26-29, and of the desolation following 

its coming, 7:18-25. 

The collection, chs. 1-35, is a book by itself 

with chs. 36-39 as an appendix. Separate 

Th addresses and collections of addresses 

Analysis of were probably in circulation before 

the first they were brought together. The 
Collection , . . , . rt ^ ° 

teaching reterred to in 8:16 must have 

been before Isaiah had completed his mission. 

This may account for their lack of chronological 

arrangement, which is like the collected poems 

of Wordsworth. 

A general division which may be a help to the 
study of the book is as follows: 

Chs. 1-12, Addresses concerning Jerusalem, 
Judah and Israel. 

Chs. 13-23, Addresses concerning foreign na- 
tions, some of later date than Isaiah's time. 

Chs. 28-33, Addresses concerning Judah and 
Jerusalem. 

Chs. 24-27, Prophecies concerning the issue of 
some great world catastrophe. 

Chs. 34, 35, Pictures of judgment and restora- 
tion, forming a conclusion to the whole collection. 

The last two sections belong to a period many 
years, perhaps several centuries, after the time of 
Isaiah. 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 95 

The great landmarks of Isaiah's prophecies 
are four Assyrian invasions of Palestine; by 
Tiglath-Pileser II, 734-732 b. c; by Shalmaneser 
IV, 725-720; by Sargon, 712-710; by Senacher- 
rib, 701. 



IX 
THE BOOK OF ISAIAH {Continued) 

Only a superficial examination is necessary 
to discover that the latter portions of the book of 
Additional Isaiah are widely separated in time and 
Collections character from the earlier. In chs. 1-39 
the dreaded enemy of Judah is Assyria, 7:17-20; 
8:5-8 etc.; in chs. 40-55, Babylon is the great 
empire and the Jews are held there in captivity. 
When Isaiah prophesied, 740-701 b. c, Assyria 
was making successive invasions into Palestine. 
That empire disappeared with the destruction of 
Nineveh, its capital 607 b. c. Chs. 40-55 have to 
do with the return of the Jews to Jerusalem through 
the favor of Cyrus king of Babylon, 538 b. c, 
about two centuries after Isaiah began to preach. 

The addresses of the first section were uttered 
in Jerusalem or in close relation to it, 3:1; 5:3; 
7:3 etc. In the latter section Jerusalem is de- 
stroyed or is far distant, 44:26, 28; 49:14-20. 
The style of the earlier chapters is abrupt, the 
sentences brief, the messages urgent; the style 
of the later chapters is deliberate and flowing. 

96 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 97 

The prevailing tone of the earlier messages was of 
warning and doom: of the later, comfort, promise 
and encouragement. Compare 9 :14-19 with 40 :l-5. 

The announcement of Israel's deliverance begins 
with the wooing note, 40:1, 2, the call from the 
The Mes- wilderness that Jehovah is going to 
sage of march at the head of his people from 

s * 4 °" 55 Babylon to Jerusalem, that the way is 
being prepared, 40:3-5, and that while human 
plans are transient and disappear, the world plan 
of God is eternal, vs. 6-8. The first section, 
chs. 40-48, ends with the declaration that Jehovah 
has redeemed his people, 48:17, and with the 
summons to go forth from Babylon at once 
under his leadership, 48:20-22. 

Chs. 49-55 tell of the restoration of Israel through 
many discouragements by the power of Jehovah 
in her own land, and her final glorious triumph, 
ending with the promise that all nature will 
rejoice with her as she begins her march across 
the desert, 55:12, 13. 

Two topics dominate the entire collection, and 
their significance lies in their relations to God's 
The Two w ^rld plan of redemption. The first 
Chief is Cyrus. Study a history of his career. 

Subjects jj e wag a |3 0irt to sen( j j-hg people of 

Jehovah back to Jerusalem. He is most highly 
praised by the prophet. But he, the mighty ruler 
of the world empire of Babylon, was only an instru- 



98 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

merit in the hands of Jehovah, who raised him up 
from the East to accomplish his divine purpose, 
41:1-6. Cyrus would cause the rebuilding of 
Jerusalem because Jehovah had said of him "He 
shall perform all my pleasure," etc., 44:28. Je- 
hovah had made Cyrus his Messiah, 45:1, to 
break open the brazen gates of Babylon and seize 
her treasures, 45:2, 3. Cyrus is to be the great 
deliverer of Israel from Babylon, 45:13, "He 
whom Jehovah loveth," 48:14, 15. 

The other main topic is the Servant, who repre- 
sents the ideal Israel, 41:8. It is for the Servant's 
sake that Jehovah has equipped Cyrus to over- 
throw Babylon, 45:4-6. The Servant is delivered 
from captivity that he may bring the religion of 
Jehovah to the whole world, 53: 11. 

The high task of the Servant is described in 
four poems. The first poem, 42:1-4 describes 
Th his equipment and methods. The second, 

Mission in which the Servant is represented as 
of Ideal speaking, describes his mission, which 
is to restore "the preserved of Israel" 
in order to the salvation of all nations, 49:1-6. 
The third sets forth his testing through endurance 
of suffering, 50:4-9. Note that the editor or 
collector of these poems uses this one to encourage 
the faithful and warn the ungodly of his own day, 
vs. 10, 11. The fourth depicts the Servant's 
humiliation and ultimate exaltation, 52:13-53:12. 



THE BOOK OF ISAIAH 99 

This is the climax of the four poems, and one of 
the noblest passages in the books of the Old 
Covenant. 

Thus the high destiny of the ideal Israel is inter- 
preted, to give salvation to the world through 
Th toil, suffering and death for others, 

Messiah issuing in ultimate resurrection and 
Ideal everlasting glory. No nation as such 

ever achieved this destiny. But Jesus, 
the offspring of the nation, the Messiah of Jehovah, 
has fulfilled this mission, and his disciples who 
interpreted it saw in these great poems the fore- 
shadowing of his suffering, toil and final victory, 
Matt. 12:15-21. Acts 3:13; 8:32-35. 

The latest collection, chs. 56-66, brings before 
us very different social conditions from the pre- 
The ceding chapters. Two opposing parties 

Final appear within Israel. Blessing and curs- 

o ec ion - n g crowc l one another. Read, e.g. 
ch. 56:6-12. The first three verses are an en- 
couragement to proselytes who obey Jewish laws, 
especially the Sabbath. The last four verses, 
9-12, are an almost vituperative address to 
Jewish pastors, comparing them to wild beasts 
and selfish, greedy, avaricious sheep dogs, false 
to their trust. 

These chapters seem to be a collection of reform 
sermons preached at different times and by dif- 
ferent persons, chs. 56-59, apparently belonging 



100 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

to the period of Ezra and Nehemiah. The sec- 
tion, chs. 60-62, is a rhapsody of Zion Redeemed; 
63:1-6 is a song of Jehovah triumphing over the 
enemies of Zion; 63:7-64:12 is a prayer in words 
of tremendous passion for Jehovah's favor to 
suffering Israel; and the remaining two chapters 
describe the blessedness of the faithful and the 
doom of apostates. The whole section, chs. 40-66, 
has been arranged by an editor as a triptich, 
each of the three parts ending with the same 
refrain, 48:22; 57:21; 66:24 (the last one ex- 
panded) . 

Passages separated from their context and their 
historical associations are used with power by 
The Use preachers and teachers and are precious 
of these for devotional uses. But the sayings 
rop ecies co iiected in this book, when interpreted 
in their historic relations, are unsurpassed by any 
in the books of the Old Covenant as appeals to 
the conscience in our own time. 



X 

THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 

The book of Jeremiah is a mingling of history, 
biography, prayer and sermon. In its record of 
Its Place vicarious sufferings freely and nobly 
in the borne in behalf of the nation, in its 
deep human interest, in its sublime 
faith in the ultimate restoration of Israel and 
the establishment of the everlasting Kingdom of 
God, it stands by itself in the library of the Old 
Covenant, prefiguring the New Covenant and 
the Christ as its Mediator. 

The first step in understanding the book of 
Jeremiah is to gain a knowledge of the period 
Study the during which it was produced and of 
Period ffo conditions which called it forth. 
Josiah became king of Judah in 639 b. c, when he 
was eight years old, 2 Kings 22:1. About twelve 
years later Jeremiah began his ministerial career 
and continued it to the destruction of the temple 
and of Jerusalem, 586 b. c, Jeremiah 1:1-3; 
52:12. 

The Biblical record of this half century, the most 

101 



102 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

tragic in the history of Judah, is in 2 Kings, chs. 
22-25, and 2 Chron. chs. 34-36. It included 
the discovery of the book of the Law, in substance 
the book of Deuteronomy, 621 b. c, and the 
reformation that followed, the death of Josiah 
at the battle of Megiddo, 609 b. c, the destruc- 
tion of Nineveh and the fall of the Assyrian 
Empire, 607 b. c, the three months' reign of 
Jehoahaz, the brother of Josiah, the reigns of 
Jehoiakim, another brother, and of his son Co- 
niah, then of another brother, Zedekiah, to the end 
of the nation. 

The death of Josiah was the most tragic event in 
Hebrew History. Under Jehoiakim the national 
control passed again to the half-heathenish party 
that had been suppressed by the reformation 
of Josiah. The party that professed to follow 
Jehovah blindly trusted their interpretation of 
the prophecy of Isaiah, 14:32, that the temple 
could not be destroyed, Jer. 7:4. Jehoiakim's 
revolt against Babylon led to the looting of the 
temple and the captivity of the leaders of the 
nation, 2 Kings 24:13-17, and the foolish rebellion 
of Zedekiah brought about the final destruction 
of the temple and city. Fill in this outline of 
history and you will be prepared to study the 
book of Jeremiah, Jer. 52:12-19. 

The prophet himself is the most important factor 
in interpreting his sayings. He has revealed 



THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 103 

himself in his writings more fully than any other 
prophet. Study his account of his call to the 
Jeremiah prophetic office, 1: 4-10; his intense suf- 
the Man fering because he could not deliver his 
fellow countrymen from their perils, 4:19, 22; 
9:1, 2; his homelessness because of his mission, 
16:2, which shadowed his daily life with gloom, 
16:9; 25:10; 33:10; his abhorrence of his fellow 
prophets because of their unfaithfulness, 23:9; 
his discovery of the treachery toward him of the 
people of his native town, 11:18-23; his resent- 
ment at the outrage inflicted on him by the chief 
officer of the temple, 20:1, 2, which moved him 
to remonstrate with Jehovah who had called him 
to preach, vs. 7-11, and to curse the day of his 
birth, vs. 14-18. He was a martyr, not only in 
death, but through a long ministry of over forty 
years, standing alone to witness against a people 
whom he passionately loved, 15:17-20. 

The prophecies may be divided as belonging 
to four periods. The first were delivered in his 
Analysis of youthful ministry. To this period be- 
the Book \ on g cns> 2-6. Read his remonstrance 
with the people for their entangling alliances with 
Egypt and with Assyria, 2:11-28; his warning 
of the approach of the Scythian armies of the 
north, 4:5-18, his impressions on his first ac- 
quaintance with Jerusalem, 5:1-13. 

The second period was that of Josiah's refor- 



104 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

mation, when he proclaimed the laws of the newly 
discovered book of the Covenant, 11:1-8. It is 
probable that the sermons of this period have 
not been preserved, since the prevailing tone of 
what we have is denunciation, and therefore 
what would now be most highly valued of Jere- 
miah's preaching may have been lost. 

The third period began with the death of Josiah 
followed by the collapse of the reform movement. 
To this period belongs the great sermon, 7:1-8:3, 
addressed to the party that relied on assurances 
that the temple could not be destroyed. This ser- 
mon was denounced by prophets and priests as sac- 
religious, and nearly cost Jeremiah his life, ch. 26. 

The fourth period extends from the near 
approach of the final catastrophe of the fall of 
Jerusalem, to the end of the prophet's ministry. 
He saw that the political life of the nation had 
ceased; and his faith rose to the confident expec- 
tation of restored spiritual life to the people of 
God. The old national Covenant was passing 
away forever, but he foresaw a new Covenant 
to be made by God with each believer in him. 
Read ch. 31, especially vs. 31-34. This, the 
fruit of Jeremiah's long and bitter experience, 
was his greatest contribution to his people and to 
mankind. It is the truth which Jesus made the 
foundation of his everlasting kingdom, Luke 
22:20; 1 Cor. 11:25; Heb. 8:7-13. 



THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH 105 

The forms of prophecy in Jeremiah's preaching 
were deeply impressive and often startling. Read 
Jeremiah's e -$' tne brief P oem describing the deso- 
Methodsoflation of war, 4:23-25, and the one 
Preaching Qn God?s tegtg and rewardS) I7 : 5_n. 

Study his illustrated sermons : the potter at work, 
18:1-17, the reception of the sermon by the 
leaders, v. 18, and Jeremiah's prayer for venge- 
ance on them, vs. 19-23. Compare with Christ's 
parable, Matt. 21:33-46. Other examples are 
the linen girdle, Jer. 13:1-11, and the broken 
bottle, 19:1-15. A similar method of preaching 
by symbols was Jeremiah's use of the yoke which 
was broken in a dispute with another prophet, 
ch. 28, his purchase of land from his cousin in 
his native town, 32:7-15, and his offer of wine 
to the Rechabites, ch. 35. 

The book of Jeremiah has passed through vari- 
ous stages. The first collection of his sermons 
The was written by Baruch, from his dicta- 

Structure tion twenty-three years after his minis- 
try opened, 36:1-4. It was short, for it was 
read and repeated several times the same day, 
36:10, 13, 15, 20, 21. That copy was destroyed 
by king Jehoiakim, 36:21-23. A new and much 
enlarged edition was produced not long afterwards, 
36:27, 28, 32. 

The narrative portions in which Jeremiah is 
spoken of in the third person were probably 



106 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

added by Baruch, e.g. chs. 36-39. Ch. 52 is 
copied from 2 Kings 24:18-25:30. The story 
of the final event in the fall of Jerusalem is also 
repeated in shorter form in Jer. 38:1-10. The 
book in our Bible contains a number of collections 
which probably were once circulated separately. 
The Greek translation of Jeremiah, in the Septu- 
agint, from a Hebrew manuscript more than a 
thousand years older than those from which our 
Bible was translated, is shorter by about 2700 
words than our book of Jeremiah. Revisions 
and additions to it evidently continued to be 
made for several centuries after the death of the 
prophet. 

The value of the book lies especially in its 
revelation of the relations between God and the 
I ts individual man. The Covenant of Je- 

Religious hovah was with the nation. But the 
new Covenant was to be established, 
Jeremiah proclaimed, between God and each 
soul accepting it. The knowledge of God and 
of his Covenant was to be imparted not through 
written records only or mainly but through the 
Spirit of God in contact with the spirit of man 
through personal experience. 31:31-34. 

These principles are fundamental to all true 
religion. In making them known Jeremiah pre- 
pared the way for the coming of the Christ and 
Christianity. 



XI 
THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL 

The place of Ezekiel in Hebrew history gives 
to his writings exceptional importance. The 
Tt pl kingdom of Judah was vanishing. It 

in the was the last organized remnant of the 
E f V R U r 1( * n gl° r i° us kingdom of David of which 
the chosen people had long cherished 
the promise of Jehovah that it should be ever- 
lasting. The condition of the fulfilment of that 
promise of the Covenant was that the Hebrew 
nation should be loyal to Jehovah. The people 
had been trained to be loyal to the nation. Now 
that the nation had failed in its part of the Cove- 
nant, the great advance in the evolution of the 
Hebrew religion was to be made by which the 
individual should come into Covenant relation with 
his God. 

Jeremiah had foreshadowed that relation, 31 :31- 
34. The great unknown prophet of the exile, 
Isa. chs. 40-55, had not yet spoken. Ezekiel was 
the connecting link between the old teaching and 
the new experience. 

107 



108 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

It was the conviction of the Hebrew historian 
that because of the long, wicked reign of Manasseh 
The Jehovah had determined to destroy the 

Political kingdom of Judah, 2 Kings 23:26, 27. 
The folly of Josiah's successors con- 
firmed this determination. The king of Egypt 
carried away one of Josiah's sons, and enthroned 
another son in his place, 2 Kings 23:31-34, who 
went down before the army of the king of Babylon 
2 Kings 24:1-4. A few months afterward the 
army entered Jerusalem, plundered the temple, 
and carried away its treasures. With these 
also the choicest of all the citizens of Judah were 
taken to Babylonia, 2 Kings 24:10-16. That 
was in 597 b. c. Those left behind were a worth- 
less and miserable company. Jeremiah compared 
the former to a basket of good figs, the latter to 
wormy and rotten figs, Jer. 24:1-10. 

The Prophet Ezekiel was among the first 
company of captives. He was a priest of an 
Ezekiel aristocratic family, 1 : 3, and in Babylonia 
the Author h e li ve d in his own house, 3 : 24, at a 
place called Tel-abib, 3:15, on the bank of a 
great canal, 1:1. It was in the fifth year of his 
exile, 1 : 2, that he began to preach, and his minis- 
try continued more than twenty years (compare 
1:2 with 29:17). At first his preaching was re- 
garded with contempt by his fellow exiles, 3:7. 
But as his predictions, especially of the final 



THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL 109 

overthrow of Jerusalem, came to be fulfiled, 
he won their respect and confidence and the leaders 
used to come to him for counsel, 8:1; 14:1; 20:1, 
though they often did not follow it, 33:30-33. 
He began his work, like Isaiah, with a most 
impressive vision of God. Compare Isa. 6:1-8 
The wn ^ n Ezek. 1:4-2:2. Like Isaiah, his 

Prophet's mission was most discouraging. Com- 
Mission pare Iga 6:9 _ 13 with Ezekiel 2:3-7. 

Note that his account of his call is voluminous 
and repetitious as compared with that of Isaiah. 

The people to whom the prophet ministered 
being divided into two parts, the best in Babylon 
and the remainder in Judah, he addressed both, 
and probably some of his sermons were circulated 
as tracts in Jerusalem. While he regarded the 
exiles more favorably than the others, 14:21-23, 
he condemned the whole nation in its entire history, 
20:5-39, and its present condition, though with 
bitter regret, 21:1-7. 

But he regarded himself as the pastor of the 
whole people, a relation new in Israel. He felt 
responsible for warning and guiding each soul, 
3:17-21. Before the final catastrophe he pre- 
dicted the end of the state, city and temple, 
5:5-17; 7:5-9; 12:17-20, etc. After the destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem he exerted his powerful influence 
to lead the captives to adopt a new religious 
point of view, and as individuals, holding and 



110 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

cultivating the sense of personal responsibility 
to God, to organize themselves into a religious 
community, for which he proposed elaborate plans. 

The prophet's method of preaching was sensa- 
tional. He revels in imagery. We find in him 
His the beginnings of Jewish apocalyptic 

Method literature, see Part I, ch. 2, paragraph 
2. His acted sermons were startling, and seem 
to us grotesque until we become acquainted with 
the character of his times and people. He ate 
the book containing God's message, that it might 
become incorporated into his own personality, 
2:8-3:3. Note his drawing a picture on a tile 
of the siege of Jerusalem, lying on his left side 
390 days, then forty days on his right side, 4 :4-8, 
eating filthy food, 4:9-17, cutting off his hair 
and beard and dividing it into three parts, 5:1-12, 
his smiting with his hand and stamping with his 
foot, 6:11, his spectacular moving of his furniture, 
12:1-7, etc. His illustrations are so vivid that 
they cannot be forgotten, such as comparing 
Israel and Judah to two sisters who were prosti- 
tutes, 23:1-49, and Jerusalem to a rusty cooking- 
pot, 24:1-14, and his vision of the dry bones 
made into living human beings, 37:1-14. 

The book is divided into two sections. The 
first twenty-four chapters are denunciations of 
Judah for her wickedness. When the siege of 
Jerusalem began, 24:1, 2, this series ended, and 



THE BOOK OF EZEKIEL 111 

the last twenty-four chapters are occupied with 
messages of comfort and guidance to the exiles. 
The Chs. 25-32 are dooms pronounced on the 

Analysis of nations that had afflicted Judah; chs. 

e 00 33-39 contain mainly promises of deliv- 
erance chapters for her, and chs. 40-48 give minute 
descriptions of an ideal city and temple for the 
nation after its restoration to its own land. 

Ezekiel's writings are of great value for the 
knowledge they give of the transition period 
Its Re- from Hebraism to Judaism, the period 
HgiousUse f \fo e exile. They contain impressive 
utterances, which apply to conditions paralleled 
in our own times, where agnosticism and skepti- 
cism go hand in hand with social corruption and 
false prophets proclaim that piety apart from 
righteousness is acceptable to God. They bring 
light and comfort to genuine patriots, to men and 
women faithful to God amid surrounding tempta- 
tions and discouragements, and confident of his 
final victory over evil. They have a distinct 
and important place in the history of the evolu- 
tion of the Kingdom of God, in the revelation 
of its principles, its ideal and its certain coming. 
The faithful student of Ezekiel will discover 
in his prophecies a rich storehouse of great ethical 
and religious truths. 



XII 
THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE 

The second Hebrew library consists of eight 
books. Four of these are called the Former 
Prophets. Of the remaining four, called 
Twelve tne Latter Prophets, three have been 
Prophets considered in the last four chapters, 
Book 6 Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. The last 
book in the list in the second library 
was called The Twelve. It included twelve 
collections of documents, the most of them ascribed 
to prophets who are named. Of some of these 
we know nothing except the names. Most of 
the materials are abstracts of addresses. Some 
historical matter is added as an aid to interpreta- 
tion, and one book, Jonah, is a story with no 
author assigned, like the stories of Ruth and 
Esther. 

The fact that they have always been placed 
together in Hebrew, Greek and Latin collections 
of the Sacred Scriptures indicates that they were 
a collection by themselves before they were ad- 
mitted into the second library. Greek Jews 

112 



THE BOOK OF THE TWELVE 113 

and Christians of early times knew them as the 
Twelve Prophets, Latins as the Minor Prophets, 
because the portion ascribed to each was brief 
in comparison to those of the three Major Proph- 
ets. That title, however, is unfortunate because 
misleading. The Twelve is not a less important 
book than the others in this library. 

The sermons collected under the name of 
Isaiah extended through nearly the entire pro- 
phetic period, from 740 b. c. to near the 
close of the second library, about 300 
B.C. But the collection under the name of The 
Twelve begins a few years earlier and covers the 
whole period of written prophecy. To the eighth 
century b. c. belong Amos, Hosea and Micah, 
all living in the time of Isaiah. This was the 
Assyrian period of Hebrew history. Of the 
seventh century are Zephaniah, Nahum and Habak- 
kuk, who were living during part of the life of 
Jeremiah and perhaps of Ezekiel. This was the 
Babylonian period. It extended into the sixth 
century and in it is Obadiah as a prophet of the 
exile. Haggai and Zechariah were prophets of 
Jerusalem after the return from the exile, Malachi 
and Joel in the century following. This was the 
Persian period. To the Greek period, which be- 
gan in 332, are to be assigned the last six chapters 
of Zechariah and the book of Jonah. 

The correct interpretation of the prophets 



114 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

depends on knowledge of the times and the 
historical circmstances in which they preached. 
Political The student needs to know to some 
Conditions extent how political parties, religious 
sects, social divisions and the relations of their 
nation with other kingdoms influenced their 
prophets' utterances. In any case he is likely 
to consider these sayings as wholly apart from 
the life of the present day. It is well, therefore, 
in studying the prophets, to study the movements 
going on in a modern oriental monarchy such as 
Turkey or China, as an aid in interpreting the 
preaching during the Hebrew monarchy. 

What is the message of the twelve to our time? 
Principal G. A. Smith of the University of Aber- 
deen offers this excellent answer: 

"Impetuous cataracts of righteousness; the 
irrepressible love of God to sinful men; the per- 
The severance and pursuits of his grace; 

Message his mercies that follow the exile and 
s the outcast; his truth that goes forth 

richly upon the heathen; the hope of the Saviour 
of mankind; the outpouring of the Spirit; counsels 
of patience; impulses of tenderness and healing; 
methods innumerable — all sprang from these 
lower hills of prophecy, and sprang so strongly 
that the world hears and feels them still." 



XIII 
THREE EIGHTH CENTURY PROPHETS 

The Book of Amos 

The first collection of sermons in the Book of 
the Twelve bears as its title, "The Words of 
Title, Date Amos." This little book of 146 verses is 
and Place fa i^ est fo & m t h e Bible. It is dated 

"two years before the earthquake." Centuries 
later there were memories among the Jews of an 
earthquake in Uzziah's time, Zech. 14:5. Not 
long after Amos spoke, Isaiah seems to have had 
it in mind, Isa. 29:6. There are frequent allu- 
sions to it in the words of Amos, 3:15; 4:11; 6:11. 
But we cannot locate the year of the earthquake. 
It occurred, however, when Uzziah ruled in Judah 
and his contemporary Jeroboam II in Israel, 1:1, 
and the place where Amos preached was Bethel, 
7:13. We may assume, then, that the ten or 
more sermons here summarized were preached 
about the year 755 b. c. 

The time was only about forty years after the 
death of the prophet Elisha. But during those 
years a great change had passed over Israel. 

115 



116 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

She was no longer exposed to such raids from 
neighboring nations as those of the king of Syria, 
Social and a g amst which Elisha warned his king, 
Political 2 Kings 6:9. The borders of Israel un- 
Conditions der Jeroboam n , and of Judah under 

Uzziah had been greatly extended. A little 
kingdom of fighting husbandmen had expanded 
into a flourishing nation with a new civilization. 
Agriculture flourished. Trade, internal and with 
foreign nations, grew. The people flocked into 
towns and cities, erected costly houses. The 
rich indulged in reckless extravagance and dissi- 
pation, Amos 3:12; 6:4-6. The rich women be- 
came sottish, 4:1. Oppression of the poor became 
intolerable, moral corruption a byword, priests 
used for wicked purposes the fines collected from 
others for sins, 2: 6-8. 

Yet worship of Jehovah had never before been 
so costly or so popular. Pilgrimages to sacred 
Piety not shrines, 5:5, abundance of offerings to 
Righteous- Jehovah, 5:22, 25, 26, were the order 
of the day. But the piety of the people 
was divorced from righteousness, 5:21, 24. They 
sought shrines but not the righteous God, 4:4. 
The situation in Israel was only more fully 
developed in Judah when Isaiah prophesied a 
score of years later. See ch. 8 of Part II, under 
"political, moral and social conditions." 

The preacher Amos came suddenly before the 



EIGHTH CENTURY PROPHETSll? 

people worshipping during a great autumn festival 
at Bethel, the most popular sanctuary of Israel, 
Amos the 7:13. He was a wool-grower who lived 
Prophet south of Jerusalem, and perhaps came 
to the market or annual fair at Bethel to sell his 
wares, 1:1. He had not pretended to be a prophet, 
but was impelled to speak to Israel by sl divine 
command, 7:14, 15; 3:8. When he had been 
silenced and driven out of the kingdom, it was 
natural that he should return to his home and 
write what he could not preach. Hence Amos 
was the first of the writing prophets. 

The prophet's messages are given in three 
sections : 

1. Chs. 1, 2 pronounced judgment on six nations 
hostile to Israel; Syria, 1:3-5; Philistia vs. 6-8; 
His Phoenicia, vs. 9:10; Edom, vs. 11, 12; 
Sermons Ammon, vs. 13-15; and Moab, 2:1-3. 
The prophet's hearers would welcome those denun- 
ciations, but he followed them at once with judg- 
ments on Judah, vs. 4, 5, and on Israel, vs. 6-16. 

2. Chs. 3-6 present the reasons for the judg- 
ment, summarized in 3:10, and the nature of it: 
war, 3:11, 12, earthquake, vs. 14, 15, captivity of 
women, 4:1-3, famine, v. 6, drought, vs. 7, 8, 
blight, v. 9, pestilence, v. 10. A dirge is used 
as a text, 5:1-3, for warnings and summons to 
seek Jehovah, with the alternative of being 
carried away captive to Assyria, 5:27; 6:7, 14. 



118 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

3. Chs. 7-9 describe visions symbolizing the 
impending judgment — the locust plague, 7:1-3, 
drought like a great conflagration, vs. 4-6, the 
plumbline, vs. 7-9, the basket of summer fruit, 
8:1-3, the Lord shaking the land with earthquake, 
9:1. Each of these visions may have been the 
text for a sermon. The account of the visions is 
interrupted by the story of the preacher's expul- 
sion from Bethel, 7:10-13, and his curse on the 
priest and the nation as he was leaving, 7:14-17. 
The last section, 9:8-15, holding out promise 
of restoration of Judah and Israel just after the 
unmitigated sentence of 9:1-5 and describing the 
return of Judah from captivity, is believed by 
many to have been an addition by a later writer. 

The ideal of social justice proclaimed by Amos 
was new. The people believed they were pleasing 
Religious God by sacrifices on his altars, and that 
Value ^hus they were keeping Covenant with 
him. They were utterly mistaken. Their relig- 
ion was a sham, an offense to God, 6: 21-23. 
What he demanded was righteousness, 6: 14, 15, 
24. This truth, that God is a God of justice, 
not for Israel only but for all nations, 9 : 7, was 
taken up by Isaiah 1:14-17 and Micah, 6: 6-8 
and later prophets. It came from Amos as a 
revelation from God. 



XIV 

THREE EIGHTH CENTURY PROPHETS 

{Continued) 
The Book of Hosea 

To the northern kingdom, called Israel, be- 
longed the great prophet Elijah, his successor 
Hosea Elisha, Ahijah, 1 Kings 11 : 29ff, Micaiah, 
1 Kings 22:13rT, and a host of others 
who had great influence in the nation. But 
the only prophet of that kingdom who has left 
writings is Hosea. No other prophet of the Old 
Covenant except Jeremiah has so clearly revealed 
through his own experience the mind of God in 
his relations with men. 

The period of Hosea's ministry was about 

seven years, from 743 to 736 b. c. The warnings 

The of Amos only a dozen years before had 

Political seemed to the joyous worshipers before 
Situation the image of the gilded buR at Bethel 

the ravings of a madman, or of a conspirator 
against the state, Amos 7:10-12. But already 
the peace and prosperity of Israel were vanishing, 
her great king Jeroboam was dead, 2 Kings 

119 



120 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

14 : 28, 29, his son assassinated, the nation paying 
a heavy tribute to Assyria, 2 Kings 15:17-20, and 
anarchy was approaching. The prophecies of doom 
by the herdsman of Tekoa were being fulfilled. 

Hosed s domestic experience is the key to his 

preaching. He had loved and married a young 

The Key woman who became unfaithful to him. 

to Hosea's She had three children who, he dis- 

reac ng coverec ^ were no j- \^ own g ne j e f t 

him, and he afterward found her a slave, bought 
her, and cared for her, not as his wife but in the 
hope that, through discipline, she might be re- 
stored to him in that relation. This most 
pathetic love story is briefly told in Hos. 1 : 2-6, 
8, 9; 3:1-3. 

Hosea came to regard his experience as a prep- 
aration designed to fit him to deliver Jehovah's 
jji s message to apostate Israel. It was, 

Message in his later view, as though Jehovah 

us ra e had told him to marry Gomer and to 
give names to her children that proclaimed her 
shame, 1:2, 4, 6, 9. 

Through years of devotion without limit he 
loved her as her husband, and after she had 
sunk to the condition of a slave exposed for sale 
in the open market, he bought her, under the 
compulsion of his unquenchable love and under- 
took to restore her to the character and position 
in which she could again be his wife. 



EIGHTH CENTURY P R O P H E T S 121 

Hosea loved his country as he loved his wife. 
Its apostasy from Jehovah, its humiliation present 
Uig and prospective in the hands of its 

Message false wooers, Egypt and Assyria, filled 
Applied him with keenest an g U i s h, 7:8-16; 8:8- 

14. Its heartless worship of Baal gods seemed 
to him like the shameful behavior of his wife, 
2:2-5, and Ephraim, as the nation was called, 
could be reclaimed, like Gomer, only by dis- 
covering the utter folly of its course, 2:7, through 
drinking to its dregs the cup of bitter experience. 
The way of the prodigal son was long and pitiful, 
2:8-13. But the prophet had a steadfast faith 
that it would end at last in the return to the 
father's house, 2:14-21; 3:4, 5. 

As an example of Hosea's passionate indict- 
ments, read the charge he hurls at the people, 
4:1-5, then at the priests, vs. 6-10, followed by 
his bitter meditation, vs. 11-14. Then consider 
the fathomless tenderness of his appeals to the 
people to repent of their wickedness and return 
to Jehovah, who is eager to receive them, 6:1-6; 
11:1-11; 14:1-8. 

Hosea's contribution to our knowledge of God 
is a new interpretation of God's Covenant of 
A New l° ve with his children. Amos pro- 
Contribu- claimed that God is righteous. Hosea 
proclaimed that God is love. Amos 
preached that the nation would be lost because 



122 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

it could not return to civic righteousness. Hosea 
preached that the nation would be saved if the 
individuals who belonged to it would repent of 
their sins and obey Jehovah through the love to 
him that is prompted by knowledge of his charac- 
ter. Hosea interprets that love through the 
analogies of family life; of the affection of a father 
for one whom he has chosen to be his child, 
11:1-4, and of a husband for one whom he has 
chosen to be his wife, 2:19, 20. This is a dis- 
tinctly new contribution, a foreshadowing of the 
New Covenant which Jeremiah later foretold, 
not according to the Old Covenant, which the 
fathers broke "although I was a husband unto 
them, saith Jehovah," Jer. 31:31-34. 

The language of Hosea is often obscure and 
difficult and the book has suffered at the hands 
of editors. Yet every student who heeds the 
exhortation to study the book appended by one 
of these editors, 14 : 9, will be amply rewarded. 

The Book of Micah 

Isaiah had begun his ministry in Judah while 
Hosea was preaching in Israel. During the same 
M . . period with Isaiah, beginning a few 

years later, another prophet, Micah, 
was preaching in Judah. Micah 1:1, compare 
Isa. 1:1. He lived in the country, among the hills 



EIGHTH CENTURY PROPHETS 123 

overlooking the plain of Sharon and the Medi- 
terranean sea, 1:1, 14. 

His mission was to proclaim the divine judgment 
against both kingdoms, 3:8; 1:5. The first 
His three chapters are prophecies of judg- 

Mission ment. Chs. 4, 5 are mainly prophecies 
of promise, based on a text, 4:1-3 from an 
older prophecy, also used by Isaiah 2:2-4. Chs. 
6, 7 are miscellaneous, containing the fine sum- 
mary of the essence of religion 6 : 6-8, and conclud- 
ing with the noble psalm of penitent Israel, 
which belongs to the time of the captivity. 

The indications are strong that considerable 
portions of this little book have been contributed 
His by others than Micah and at a later 

Influence period. But that the impression he 
made was strong and abiding is evident from the 
way his prophecies were quoted a century later 
by the leaders of Judah, Jer. 26:16-19. 



XV 
THREE SEVENTH CENTURY PROPHETS 

After the death of Hezekiah, 2 Kings 20:21, 
and the close of the ministries of Isaiah and 
«. Micah no great prophet of Jehovah 

Years appeared in Judah for more than half 

without a century. Hezekiah, under the guid- 
ance of Isaiah, had driven out the old 
Canaanite forms of worship, 2 Kings 18:3-6. 

But his son and successor, Manasseh, who 
began his reign about 696 b. c, brought back 
Idolatry all the forms of idolatry, including the 
Restored s ^ ar WO rship borrowed from Assyria. 
His long reign was a period of unbroken hostility 
to the prophetic party, 2 Kings 21:2-9. Prophets 
attempted to preach but they were silenced and 
put to death, 2 Kings 21:10-16; Jer. 2:30. 

During this period the Assyrians conquered 
Egypt and destroyed its capital, Thebes, which 
Assyria was ca ^ e d No-Amon, Nah. 3:8-10. 
Master of Judah, as Assyrian inscriptions show, 
J udal1 W as ruled by Assyria, and according 
to the Chronicler Manasseh was carried in chains 

124 



SEVENTH CENTURY PROPHETS 125 

to Babylon by the king of Assyria, 2 Chron. 33: 
11-13. 

The spirit and utterance of prophecy, however, 
were not wholly suppressed, 2 Kings 21:10-12. 
The It is probable that during this period 

Prophetic of persecution the most impressive 
Par *y sayings of the prophets of the preceding 

century, Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah, were 
collected, edited and circulated. When Amon suc- 
ceeded Manasseh, still carrying out his father's 
policy, and was put to death within two years, 
it is not difficult to believe that new hopes were 
kindled in those who sympathized with the pro- 
phetic party, though they may not have prompted 
the deed, 2 Kings 21:19-23. The popular senti- 
ment, at any rate, was against them, and the 
people put Amon's little son Josiah on the throne, 
expecting that he would continue to do as his 
father had done, v. 24. 

But Josiah, when he grew to manhood, dis- 
appointed his supporters, restored the reforms 
Prophets °^ n * s g rea ^ grandfather Hezekiah with 
again greater ability and stronger purpose, 

ower u an( j swe p|- awa y the abominations of 
the popular religion which for more than sixty 
years had prevailed in Judah, 2 Kings 23:4-14. 
It is at this point that we place the first of the 
three seventh century prophets in the book of 
the Twelve. 



126 making of the bible 

The Book of Zephaniah 

Jeremiah (see ch. x) and Zephaniah appear 
to have begun their ministry at about the same 
The time, Jer. 1:2; Zeph. 1:1. Zephaniah 

Prophet was a great great grandson of Hezekiah, 
1:1, imbued, as his sermons show, with the spirit 
of Isaiah, whose words he no doubt had studied. 
He seems to have sought to serve his royal cousin 
Josiah as faithfully as Isaiah had served his 
ancestor. 

During the twelve years of Josiah's minority, 
2 Kings 22 : 2, the persecution of the prophets 
Religious had ceased. But religious conditions 
Conditions m Jerusalem had not much improved. 
A remnant of Baal remained. The people con- 
tinued the Assyrian star worship and swore by 
heathen gods. Some had apostatized, others 
had never sought to know Jehovah, Zeph. 1:4-6; 
Jer. 2:11-13. Many who professed faith in 
Jehovah had no reverence for him, Zeph. 1:12. 

Besides the religious conditions in Judah, 
two movements outside of that kingdom must be 
Th e considered in interpreting the prophecies 

Political of Zephaniah. One of these was the 
Situation decline of Assyria, the mighty world 
empire which so long had oppressed Judah. 
Internal revolts had already weakened it. A 
life and death struggle with Babylon and Elam 



SEVENTH CENTURY PROPHETS 127 

was imminent before it. The other movement 
was more immediate and alarming. An invasion 
of Scythians from the north had overrun Western 
Asia, spread consternation through Palestine, 
and reached the borders of Egypt. 

Under these conditions the young preacher 
sounded his notes of alarm. The doom he pro- 
Zeph- claimed was to be universal 1:2, and 
aniah's to include Judah and Jerusalem in the 
Message general rum> i :2 -13. The Scythian 

invasion probably inspired his first message, 
which closes, 1:14-18, with the famous dirge, 
Dies Irae, now known in all Christian churches. 
This is a translation of the Latin version by 
Thomas of Celano. 

As the first chapter describes the judgment of 
"the Great Day of Jehovah" on Judah, the 
The Day second pictures the effects of that Day 
of Jehovah j Judgment, 2:1, 2, on other nations, 
Philistia, vs. 4-7, Moab and Ammon, vs. 8-11, 
Egypt and Assyria, vs. 12-15. It is difficult for 
us to imagine the effect of this sermon about 
Assyria upon a people who had inherited awe 
of that mightiest of the world's nations and who 
had suffered untold horrors from its oppressions, 
Nah. 2:11, 12. 

The third chapter depicts with impassioned 
phrases the crimes of peoples, princes, prophets 
and priests in Jerusalem, vs. 1-7. Then follows 



128 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

a passage, vs. 8-13, promising blessings on those 
in all nations who serve Jehovah, and on the rem- 
The Purifi- nan ^ °^ Judah. The closing section, vs. 
cation of 14-20, is a psalm celebrating the return 
•' u from the captivity, and belongs to a 

time after the exile. It may have been fitly 
placed here to celebrate the fulfillment of Zeph- 
aniah's prophecies. 



The Book of Nahum 

The long oppression of Judah by Assyria was 
about to end. Her people had lost their patri- 
The Doom otism, which had been smothered by 
of Assyria their prosperity and their vices, Nah. 
3:4. Nations that she had ruled were revolting. 
The army of Media was marching against her. 
The poet prophet Nahum sang her funeral dirge. 
Zephaniah had seen the end coming and had pic- 
tured it, Zeph. 2:13-15. Nahum sent forth the 
wild cry of triumph as though he were seeing it 
fall. 

Place yourself in the position of the Hebrews 
who had suffered long from the cruelties of 
. . . Assyria without the least expectation 
of deliverance, who now saw her mighty 
walls tottering to their fall. Ch. 1 is a chant of 
Jehovah's power, vs. 2-8, a rebuke to those who 
defy him, vs. 9-11, a promise of deliverance to 



SEVENTH CENTURY PROPHETS 129 

his own, vs. 12, 13, a denunciation of Judah's 
oppressor, v. 14, and an assurance of safety to 
Judah, v. 15. Chs. 2, 3 are two great poems cele- 
brating in vivid word pictures the siege and fall 
of Assyria's capital, Nineveh. Their lesson by 
inference is that God governs his world by moral 
law, that he is the sure avenger of wrong, and that 
those who trust him for protection will not be 
disappointed. 

The Book of Habakkuk 

Assyria had fallen, her proud capital destroyed, 
but deliverance did not come to Judah. Babylon 
Th e had taken the place of Assyria as 

Prophet's Judah's oppressor. Then arose another 
yues ions p^p]^^ Habakkuk, to ask the great 
question which still burdens suffering souls, 
" Why must the children of God endure the oppression 
of the wicked?" Ch. 1:2-4. For answer he has a 
vision of the Babylonian or Chaldean armies 
sweeping all before them, vs. 5-11. They seem 
to the prophet the instrument of Jehovah to 
punish the oppressors of Judah, v. 12. But the 
Chaldeans are also wicked. How, asks the 
prophet again, with the perplexity of Job, can 
the holy God make use of such wicked instruments 
to do his will? vs. 13-17. 

To the prophet's anxious inquiry, 2:1, Jehovah's 



130 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

clear word is heard, that patient waiting will 
surely be rewarded by the answer sought, 
Jehovah's vs. 2, 3, and that while the proud op- 
Answer pressor is puffed up with conceit, the 
righteous sufferer will be sustained by his faithfulness, 
v. 4. 

Then follow five taunting riddles, v. 6, against 
the oppressor whose avarice, vs. 6-8, pride, vs. 
The Doom 9-11, cruel building schemes, vs. 12-14, 
of Tyranny sen suality, vs. 15-17, and idolatry, 
vs. 18, 19 have long been crushing the people of 
God. But Jehovah is still in his temple, v. 20; 
compare Ps. 2:1-6. The central thought of these 
woes is that wronging others is self-destruction, 
Prov. 8:36; Eccl. 12:13, 14. 

Ch. 3 is a magnificent ode, which belongs 
in the book of the Psalms. Compare with Ps. 
The 77:16-20. This ode is worthy of most 

Prophet's thoughtful consideration. Its great les- 
ong son is that because of misfortunes, even 

most extreme, we ought to exult in the God of 
our Salvation, and that to those who trust in him 
the paths of discipline are high places along which 
he leads them in their upward march. 



XVI 
THREE SIXTH CENTURY PROPHETS 

When the sixth century b. c. opened, Jeremiah 
was a powerful preacher in Jerusalem, giving 
Prophets n * s warning messages to the young king 
of the and the queen mother and the people, 
Exile Jer.13 :18-27. The choicest of the citizens 

of Judah were deported to Babylon in 597 b. c, 
2 Kings 24:14-16. A little later Jeremiah wrote 
letters to them, ch. 29. Ezekiel began his ministry 
in Babylon five years later, Ezek. 1:2, 3. In 
586 the temple was burned and all except the 
poorest of those who remained were carried to 
Babylon, 2 Kings 25:8-12. As the time drew 
near for the captives to return, the splendid say- 
ings of the great prophet of the exile were uttered, 
Isa. 40-55. 

The separation of the Jews from their own land 
Lite rv aroused a new interest in their national 
Activity history, and their literary records were 
during the gathered, revised and edited. In this 
period we find the beginning of the 
Library of the Covenant, which has become our 

131 



132 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

Old Testament. In the Book of the Twelve are 
three collections of documents belonging to the 
sixth century, which will now be considered. 



The Book of Obadiah 

The shortest book in the Hebrew library is 
named Obadiah. Of its 21 verses, 2-9 following 

It A th ^ e ^ e ' v ' *' a PP ear to nave been 
taken from a document also quoted 
by Jeremiah, 49:7-22. Of the author of this 
book nothing is known. 

To appreciate this fierce denunciation of Edom 
it is necessary to trace the hereditary hatred 
The Jews* between it and Israel. The stories 
Hatred of in Genesis of Esau and Jacob illustrate 
Edom it, Gen. 25:23-26. It is summed up 
in Mai. 1:2-4. Edom refused to permit the 
children of Israel to pass through its borders on 
the way to the promised land, Num. 20:14-21. 
Balaam prophesied that Judah should possess 
Edom, her enemy, Num. 24:18, and she did, 

1 Sam. 14:47. David almost exterminated the 
nation, 1 Kings 11:15, 16. Long afterwards, 
when Edom had revolted against Judah, 2 Kings 
8 : 20, Amaziah smote it and captured its fortress, 

2 Kings 14:7. A favorite theme of the prophets 
was the divine vengeance executed on Edom, 
Amos 1:11; Isa. 11:14; Jer. 25:12-14; Joel 



SIXTH CENTURY PROPHETS 133 

3:19. Read these passages, and that bitter cry 
of an exiled Hebrew, Ps. 137, especially v. 7, 
and you will be prepared to understand the 
fierce invective of Obadiah. 

Locate Edom on the map, on the southern 
border of Judah. Picture the Edomites in their 
. . rocky fastnesses, taunting the people of 
Jerusalem in the day of their calamity, 
vs. 11-14, feeling secure themselves, v. 3. Oba- 
diah encouraged his suffering brethren by prophe- 
sying the destruction of Edom, vs. 4, 10, 15, 16, 
and the final restoration of Judah, vs. 17-21. 
Into the mocking faces the prophet shouted back 
defiance; the house of Jacob should be a fire 
and burn up the house of Esau as though it were 
stubble, and possess the land it had proudly 
occupied, vs. 18, 19. 



The Book of Haggai 

When the first company of returning exiles 
arrived at Jerusalem they gave money to rebuild 
Conditions the temple, Ezra 2:68, 69. They went 
at Jeru- back for that purpose, Ezra 1:3, 5, 6. 
They built an altar the first year and 
established daily offerings, Ezra 3:1-6. The sec- 
ond year they laid the foundation of the temple 
with great rejoicing, 3:10, 11. 

But owing to interference from neighboring 



134 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

peoples, Ezra 4:1-6, and discouragements from 
bad harvests and other disappointments, Hag. 
1:2, the work was discontinued for more than 
sixteen years, i.e., from the second year of Cyrus, 
Ezra 1:1, till the second year of Darius, Ezra 4:24. 

Then two prophets began to preach a crusade 
for the rebuilding of the temple, Ez. 5:1. The 
H . first was Haggai, who according to 
tradition was a young layman. He 
certainly was a man of action and energy: for his 
work is summarized in abstracts of four sermons, 
delivered within four months in one autumn, 
1:1; 2:1, 10, 20. 

These sermons are all of the same character 
and have the same aim. The first one was an 
His First appeal to the conscience of rulers and 
Sermon people. Haggai said to them, assem- 
bled in Jerusalem at a feast: Cease urging that 
the time has not yet come to build the temple 
because of your poverty. You are poor because 
of your neglect of the object for which you came 
back to your own country. Get out into the hill 
country, collect timber and go to work on the 
temple, 1:3-11. This was probably the substance 
of several addresses. They stirred the rulers and 
people to action, and within four weeks they were 
at work, 1:12-15. 

The next sermon was a strong encouragement 
to go on with the work because of Jehovah's 



SIXTH CENTURY PROPHETS 135 

Covenant of promise, 2:2-5, because the disturbed 
condition of all the nations at that time gave them 
Second a great opportunity, 2 : 6-9, and because 
Sermon f ^ e p rom i se that the silver and gold 
of all nations should be brought to make the 
temple glorious. 

The third sermon represents Haggai, a layman, 
asking two questions of the priests. The sub- 
Third stance of the answers was that cere- 

Sermon monial holiness spread more slowly by 
contact than ceremonial uncleanness, vs. 10-13. 
The prophet used the answers as an illustration 
to show the people that their long and sinful 
neglect of their duty to build the temple had 
spoiled their work and that the time since they 
began (compare 1:2 with 2:1) was yet too short 
to prove the good effects of their new purpose, 
but he assures them that from that day God will 
bless them. 

The last sermon, on the same December day 
with the other, was an assurance to the governor 
Fourth of the colony that the excited move- 
Sermon ments of the nations threatening to 
disrupt the Persian empire would result in their 
overthrow, vs. 20-22, and in his exaltation as 
the chosen ruler representing Jehovah, v. 23. 
This promise was not fulfilled in the eyes of the 
world, for four years later Darius quelled all revolts 
and reestablished his empire while the temple 



136 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

of the Jews was yet unfinished. But the prophet 
had kindled and proclaimed anew the Messianic 
hope of Israel. 



The Book of Zechariah 

Between the second and third sermon of Haggai 
another voice was heard summoning the people 
The to return to Jehovah. It was the 

Prophet voice of Zechariah, prophet and priest, 
Zech. 1:1; Neh. 12:16. Twenty-seven persons 
by that name are mentioned in the Old Testa- 
ment, and all that we know of this one is revealed 
in the records of his preaching. 

His first sermon was based on the sad experi- 
ence of the fathers in not heeding the words of 
jji s their prophets, and was an urgent appeal 

Opening to the returned exiles to devote them- 

essage se } ves ^ fae service of Jehovah, 1:2-6. 

Then follows a collection of eight symbolic 
sermons in apocalyptic language, which may be 
Picture named as follows: The Red Horse 
Sermons ser mon, 1:7-17; The Horns and the 
Silversmiths, 1:18-21; The Measuring of Jerusa- 
lem, 2:1-13; The Dirty Priest Reclothed, 3:1-10; 
The Golden Candlestick and Bowl, 4:1-14; The 
Book that had Wings, 5:1-4; The Woman in the 
Bushel Basket, 5:5-11; The War Chariots of 
Jehovah, 6:1-8. This series is concluded with 



SIXTH CENTURY PROPHETS 137 

an account of a crown sent from the Jews in 
Babylon to be placed on the head of the high 
priest, 6:11, more probably meant for Zerubbabel, 
v. 12, in token of his exaltation to royal power, 
as prophesied by Haggai, 2:23. 

This prophecy, however, was not fulfilled. 
The excited political condition of nations in revolt 
Fate against Persia, Hag. 2:6, 7, 21, 22, was 

of the soon and unexpectedly changed by 
rop ecy ^ e successful campaigns of Darius, 
Zech. 1:11, 15, and with this passage, Zech. 6:15, 
the house of David disappears from the Old 
Testament world. 

Two years after Zechariah began to preach, 
7:1, he delivered a message to a deputation from 
Later Bethel, asking if the anniversaries of 

Sermons ^ e burning of the temple, Jer. 52 :12-14, 
and of the murder of Gedaliah, 2 Kings 25:25, 
should continue to be observed by fasts now that 
the temple was being rebuilt, 7:1-14. Ch. 8 
is a brief summary of ten sermons, each beginning 
with "Thus saith Jehovah." After 8:23, read 
Ezra 6:14-22. 

The remaining chapters of the book of Zech- 
ariah, 9-14, belong to the period of Greek rule 
over Palestine, two centuries or more after the 
time of Zechariah. 



XVII 

THE THREE LATEST PROPHETS 

The preaching of Zechariah was followed by the 
dedication of the finished temple and a great cele- 
The Unre- hration of the passover, Ezra 6 : 14-22. 
corded Then followed a period of nearly seventy 
ears years of which the book of Ezra-Nehe- 
miah contains no record. Probably this silence 
was because nothing occurred during that time 
which would add anything to the glory of the 
history of the Jews for later generations or would 
enlarge their knowledge of God. 

The Book of Malachi 

Some sermons of that unrecorded period have 
been preserved to be read and reread by the Jews. 
Th It was a time between two great revivals. 

Preaching The first, of which Haggai and Zech- 
of the ariah were the chief preachers, re- 
sulted in the rebuilding of the temple. 
Then came many years of disappointment 
and depression, followed by the second revival 
which resulted in the rebuilding of the walls of 

138 



THE THREE LATEST PROPHETS 139 

Jerusalem under Nehemiah, 6:15, 16, and the 
solemn adoption of the Law, Neh. chs. 8-10. 
In this period, previous to the rebuilding of the 
city walls, we place the book of Malachi and the 
sermons in Isaiah, chs. 56-62. 

Haggai had hoped for the restoration of the 
Jews to independence through the breaking up 
The Back- °^ tne Persian empire, Hag. 2:21-23. 
ground of But the restoration by Darius of the 
ac unity of his kingdom and its mainte- 
nance by his successors left to the Jews no prospect 
of independence, no influence among the nations, 
no opportunity for deeds of patriotism or self- 
sacrifice. Hostile neighboring tribes, of whom 
Judah in former generations had been masters, 
vented their spite on the little province. The 
national character was lowered as time passed. 
The leaders became selfish, the priests neglected 
their office, the people grew careless. The more 
prosperous cheated their poorer neighbors, and 
many of them married into families of neighbor- 
ing nations in order to gain greater opportunities 
for trade. Foreign wives insisted that their 
husbands should put away their Jewish wives; 
for polygamy was not regarded as a sin. Thus 
the purity of the race was threatened and absorp- 
tion into stronger heathen communities seemed 
to the prophets impending. This is the back- 
ground of the book of Malachi. 



140 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

The book is anonymous. In placing it in the 
book of the Twelve it received the Hebrew title, 
The Malachi, 3:1, "My Messenger." It is 

Unnamed the title of the "angel" who brought 
rop e to Zechariah the messages of Jehovah, 
Zech. 1:9, 12, 19, etc. 

The sermons are colloquial, being answers to 
questions spoken or assumed to be spoken by 
Th Stvl ^ e P eo Pl e addressed, Note 1:2, 7; 

6 tyC 2:14, 17; 3:7, 8, 13. The first message 
of Jehovah to Israel 1:1, was "I have loved you." 
"Prove it," said the people, v. 2. "See what I 
did to Esau," vs. 3-5. "What return have you 
made for Jehovah's favor?" is the prophet's 
question in the name of his God. To the 
priests' answering question the prophet replies 
by accusing them of offering to Jehovah worth- 
less sacrifices which they would not dare 
present to the governor of the province, vs. 
7-9. He declared that it would be better to 
shut the temple than so to disgrace it, v. 10. 
Gentile nations honor Jehovah and esteem him 
more highly than you do, vs. 11-14. Compare 
Luke 13:28, 29. 

Ch. 2:1-12 is a scathing indictment of degen- 
erate priests for breaking the Covenant which their 
Prophetic ancestor Levi had kept; vs. 14-16 are 
Rebukes a solemn admonition to those husbands 
who, under persuasion of their foreign wives, have 



THE THREE LATEST PROPHETS 141 

divorced their Jewish wives. The tears of these 
wives on Jehovah's altar prevent him from 
receiving any offering from husbands who have 
wronged them, v. 14. Ch. 2:17 is a rebuke to 
pessimists. 

Ch. 3:1-6 declares that Jehovah will answer 
their skepticism by suddenly appearing in his 
Prophetic temple, cleansing corrupt priests, and 
Promises pronouncing judgment on those who 
practise heathen rites, take foreign wives, and 
deal unjustly with wage earners and foreigners. 
Compare v. 5 with Zech. 7:8-10. Just payment 
of temple dues which have been withheld will be 
rewarded, 3 : 7-12. The complaints of faithful 
ones against God, vs. 14, 15, which they often 
made to one another, he has heard and has made 
a record of their fidelity, vs. 16, 17. The time 
will come when they will recognize the advantage 
of remaining faithful, v. 18, when seemingly 
prosperous sinners will be consumed at Jehovah's 
great Day of Judgment, 4:1, and when the righteous 
shall have vindication, restoration, v. %, and ven- 
geance, v. 3. A careful observance of the Laws 
of Moses will prepare them for the great trial 
before the coming prophet like Elijah, and deliver 
them from destruction at the hand of Jehovah, 
vs. 4-6. 



142 making of the bible 

The Book of Joel 

The Malachi sermons had their effect in the 

revival which caused the walls of Jerusalem to 

p . 1 rise again and the priestly Law to be 

adopted, Neh. 6:15, 16; 10:28-31. A 

period of prosperity followed. 

But a terrible plague of locusts swept over the 
whole land, greater than ever had been known, 
The Locust Joel 1:2-4. Then the prophet Joel 
Plague arose, describing the plague in vivid 
apocalyptic language used in late Judaism, 1 : 5-12, 
and calling the people together to fast and pray 
that Jehovah would avert the impending catastro- 
phe, 1:13-20. The description of the advancing 
army of locusts is most impressive, as the Day of 
Jehovah. Read carefully 2:1-11. 

The pleadings of the people for mercy, 2:12-17, 
were heard, and the locusts dispersed, vs. 18-20. 
The Plenty succeeded famine, 2:21-27. The 

Promise experience was a foretaste of far greater 
° f . tJ ? e blessings, the outpouring of the Spirit 
of God on all nations, vs. 28-32, for 
the salvation of the Jews, 3:1, and the punish- 
ment of all the nations that have wronged them, 
3:2-16. But Jerusalem will be for Jews only, 
and will prosper evermore as the abode of Jehovah, 
vs. 18-21. 



XVIII 

THE THREE LATEST PROPHETS 

{Continued) 
The Book of Jonah 

The latest of the prophetic books, at any rate 
the latest to be considered, is Jonah. To inter- 
Th pret its meaning you need to study 

Historic the rise of Greece to be a world empire. 
Back- jj- j s usually called Javan in the Bible, 
the Hebrew rendering of the Greek 
word for Ionian. The period to be studied 
extends from the entrance of Greece into Palestine 
begun by the alliance of the Macedonians with 
Darius of Persia about the time of the completion 
of the temple at Jerusalem, 515 b. c. to the death 
of Alexander the Great in 324 B.C. The permanent 
establishment by him of Greek influence in the 
East changed the life and theology of the Jewish 
people. 

The victories of Alexander brought the two 
Opposing £ rea t currents of ancient thought and 
Parties culture into close contact, the Semitic 
of Jews an( j the Q ree k Tn e Jews who went to 

Babylon and Persia and those who came in 

143 



144 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

touch with these peoples in trade and in other 
ways were broadened in their sympathies for 
mankind. They were the Liberal party. They 
maintained that all nations were objects of 
Jehovah's care. Israel's mission was to bring 
to them the knowledge of God. Their view and 
spirit were represented by their hymns, of which 
Psalms 67 and 98 are examples. 

But these Liberal Jews were a comparatively 
small number. The larger conservative or ortho- 
The dox P ai> ty held tenaciously to the belief 

Orthodox that God had chosen them and them only 
ar ^ as his children. Their hopeless struggles 

against their conquerors intensified their hatred 
against foreigners. Examples of their favorite 
hymns are Psalms 60, 80, 137. 

The book of Jonah belongs to this period. Like 
the book of Daniel an ancient prophet was 

Author- chosen by the unknown author as its 
ship h ero< 

Its object was to establish the truth that the 

love of God is not exclusively confined to Jews, 

Th but is extended to all mankind, and that 

Purpose his Covenant is open to them all. 

of the Thi s book stands alone in the second 
Book ... . . , . 

library as containing no prophecy other 

than the unfulfilled prediction of the immediate 

destruction of Nineveh, 3:4. 

The truth it aims to proclaim of the universal 



THE THREE LATEST PROPHETS 145 

love of God is presented in the form of a story. 
As a word picture in forty-eight verses for that 
purpose it has a marvelous completeness. 

If it were taken as a record of facts its incom- 
pleteness would be more marvelous. For no 
A Sermon name is given of the Assyrian king 
St01 7 thus wonderfully converted, 3:6. No 

results of the conversion of the people of the capi- 
tal of the world empire appear in its history. 
Assyria to the end of its existence worshiped its 
own gods. No parallel is known of a great fast 
observed by animals clothed in sackcloth, abstain- 
ing from food and water and crying to God in 
repentance for their sins, 3:7, 8. No account 
is given of what their sins were. The book bears 
on its face the evidence that it is a sermon story, 
as truly as was Isaiah's song of the vineyard, 
Isa. 5:1 Q. and Christ's story of the Prodigal Son, 
Luke 15:11-32. 

The great fish miraculously prepared to swallow 
the prophet, which after keeping him in its 
Not a stomach three days vomited him out 

Record on an unnamed dry land in obedience 
of Facts tQ an order from j e kovah, 2:10, the 

tree that Jehovah made to grow up in a single 
night to give shade to the prophet watching to 
see if Nineveh would be destroyed at his word, 
4:6, are sufficient evidences that this is not a 
record of facts. 



146 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

Secular powers employed by Jehovah to punish 

disobedient Israel were often described by later 

Th prophets as sea monsters. The Pha- 

Figure raoh of Egypt was thus pictured by 

of a Sea Ezekiel 29:3-5; 32:2-4. The figure 
Monster . . . . to 

seems to nave been taken from an 

ancient legend, Isa. 27:1. Nebuchadnezzar was 

the sea monster who had swallowed up captive 

Judah, Jer. 51:34, and Jehovah would compel 

him to vomit forth what he had swallowed, Jer. 

51:44. 

The book of Jonah amplified this figure into a 
wonderful sermon story. Israel having refused 
The its great mission to offer salvation to 

Message |- ne nations, and fleeing from its duty, 
was cast off by Jehovah, swallowed up in captivity 
by Babylon, and after a period of discipline was 
brought forth again by Jehovah's command to 
Babylon's king, Ezra 1:1-5; Jonah, chapters 1, 2. 
But Israel, restored to its own land, had failed 
to appreciate its mission, and narrowed itself in 
selfishness till it had grown bitter at the thought 
of God's mercy and loving-kindness toward man- 
kind outside of its own little circle. Repentance 
for sin and obedience to God manifested among 
Gentiles, 3:5-10, only irritated the orthodox 
Jews. They sulkily hoped against hope that their 
God would show himself as mean as they felt. 

But temporary good fortune for the Jews so 



THE THREE LATEST PROPHETS 147 

absorbed them that they forgot all about the 
mission of Jehovah which they had misunderstood, 
4:6. When they lost their good fortune they 
continued to forget their mission because of their 
misery, vs. 7, 8. In prosperity or adversity they 
regarded themselves as the most important thing 
in the world. They were like one who assumed 
to be a prophet of Jehovah and who was made 
more miserable by losing a shade to keep the hot 
sun off his head than he was because his curse 
on a great city of penitent souls had failed to 
work. 

The sermon story leaves the orthodox Jews 
so angry because Nineveh was not destroyed, 

The ^ : ^> ^' so ver y an y r y because the gourd 

Conclusion tree was destroyed, so meanly jealous 

of the f their God looking down in loving 

Message . , ° ° 

compassion on the vast city with its 

throngs of penitent faces turned up toward him, 

and its multitude of innocent children and cattle, 

vs. 9-11. 

In its penetrating appreciation of human 

nature at its worst and best, its exquisite humor, 

its noble comprehension of the justice, 
Prophetic merc y an d love of God as the Father 
Character of mankind, and its vision of a redeemed 
Book 6 world, the book of Jonah is unsurpassed 

in the books of the Old Covenant. 
It foreshadows the spirit of Jesus, preaching his 



148 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

first sermon to his own townspeople and rousing 
to fury the hate of the orthodox Jews of Nazareth, 
Luke 4:16-30; and the message of Peter to the 
first Christian church inspired by a new divine 
impulse to emancipation from narrow Judaism 
and saying, "Then to the Gentiles also hath God 
granted repentance unto life." 

No true student of the Bible who has compre- 
hended the meaning of this sermon story will 
wonder that one of the greatest German scholars 
has said, "I have read the Book of Jonah at least 
a hundred times, and I will publicly avow that 
I cannot even now take up this marvelous book, 
nay, nor even speak of it, without the tears rising 
to my eyes and my heart beating higher." 



PART THREE 
THE LAW 




Copyright. 1906; by Charles Foster Kent 

Period of the Hebrew Settlement of Canaan 
(1150-1050 b.c.) 



THE MAKING OF THE LAW 

The Hebrew title of the first Library of the 
Covenant, the Torah, did not in its earlier use 
The refer to a book. It meant the living 

Torah word of Jehovah in the mouth of his 
prophets, giving them instruction for men con- 
cerning God and their conduct toward him. For 
example, Isaiah's command to his disciples to 
bind up and seal the law, Isa. 8:16, referred to his 
own teaching, prefaced by "Thus saith Jehovah," 
Isa. 1:10. Before the discovery of the book of 
Deuteronomy, 621 b. c, 2 Kings 22, 23, the 
prophets do not mention a book as their source 
of authority. 

The great Lawgiver of Israel was Moses. The 
prophets before the Exile knew him as the founder 
The Law- of the nation, the prophet to whom 
g iver Jehovah revealed the Torah, Hos. 12 :13; 

Mic. 6:4. Centuries after his death it was de- 
clared that with no prophet since his time had 
God spoken so intimately as with him, Deut. 
34:10-12. He gave to the people whom he led 

151 



152 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

out of Egypt the principles of the Law whose 

detailed precepts were wrought out through their 

experience. 

It is not asserted, however, that he wrote the 

five books known to us by the title The Law. 

Th e Moses wrote the instructions of Jehovah 

Writings at the organization of the nation before 
of Moses Mt g inaij Ex 2 4:1 _ 4) which were the 

basis of the Covenant. The Ark, constructed under 
his direction, which symbolized the immediate 
presence of God in Israel, contained the "tes- 
timony" which Jehovah gave to him, Ex. 25:21. 
But that was only the two tables of stone 
on which the ten commandments were written, 
1 Kings 8:9. Those were the standard of living 
acceptable to God, which came as a revelation 
through Moses. The Law was the development 
of that standard through ages of national expe- 
rience. 

Three distinct codes of laws can be traced in 
the books of the Law. The first is known as the 
Three Sinaitic Code, Ex. chs. 20-23. Its center 
Codes of is the ten commandments or Decalogue, 
aws and it is adapted to the needs of a 

primitive agricultural community. It prescribes 
three feasts, Ex. 23:14-17, and sacrifices may be 
offered to Jehovah in any place, Ex. 20:24. 
The second is the Deuteronomic Code adopted in 
Judah more than five centuries later, Deut. chs. 



MAKING OF THE LAW 153 

12-26. It names seven feasts, and the public 
worship of Jehovah is forbidden except in one 
place, Deut. 12:5-7, 13, 14. The third is the 
Priestly Code, suited to the period following the 
Exile, Lev. chs. 17-26. The elaborate ritual 
which here sanctions the detailed laws culmi- 
nated in the Day of Atonement, ch. 16, to which 
no allusion is made in previous legislation or in 
the prophetic books, except possibly in Ezekiel. 

These three codes are imbedded in five volumes, 
which assume to give an account of the origin 
Contents °^ the P eo P^ e °f Israel, of their early 
of the history, of the development of their 
aw faith in and worship of Jehovah, of 

their government, social life and relations with 
other nations. 

The books bear evidences of having been 

written in their present form in a period of 

TT7T. xi- maturity centuries later than the 
When the .../... , . , ,. 

Books political, religious, and social condi- 

^S T . e tions which they describe. Note, e.g. 

ntten Gen. 12: 6; Num. 12: 3; Deut. 17:14-17; 
34:10. They also contain, interwoven together, 
frequently varied and sometimes contradictory 
statements of the same events ; e.g. compare 
Gen. 1:1-2:4 with 2:4-25; 6:18-22, and 7:6-9 
with 7:1-5. 

These varied accounts appear in all the five 
books, indicating that the same methods of con- 



154 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

structing them have been employed in them all. 
They are together a continuous history of the 
The Pen- life and legislation of primitive Israel, 
tateuch Therefore they are in an important 
sense a single book, and the Greek name given 
to them by the Jews was Pentateuch, i.e., the book 
of the five. 

The same methods also are discovered in the 
book of Joshua, which is the complement of the 
The Hex- others as describing the final stages in 
ateuch ^h e history of the nation through its set- 
tlement in Canaan. Hence modern scholars apply 
to the six books the name Hexateuck to empha- 
size their unity. 

The general outline of these six books con- 
sidered as one includes, (1) The beginnings of 
General universal history, Gen. chs. 1-11; (2) 
Outline Biographies of the ancestors of the 
Hebrews as the Covenant people of Jehovah 
through the period of the patriarchs, Gen. chs. 
12-50; (3) The organization of the Hebrew nation 
and the beginnings of its institutions and laws, 
Ex. ch. 1 — Num. 10:10; the training in the desert 
wanderings, and settlement of three tribes in the 
East Jordan region, Num. 10:11 — Deut. 34:12; 
the conquest of Canaan, Josh. chs. 1-24. 

The methods and processes of divine revelation 
are much grander and more extensive than were 
formerly supposed. The books of the Law rep- 



MAKING OF THE LAW 155 

resent a growth of more than thirty centuries, 
during which the Spirit of God was answering 
The Basis the inquiries of men concerning their 
of the Law origin, their relations with him and with 
one another, their duties and destiny. These 
inquiries were answered through human experi- 
ence expressed in songs and stories and records of 
wars and conquests and duties formulated into 
laws. Excavations and researches have brought 
to light inscriptions on rocks, monuments, and 
temples; and long-buried cities and libraries 
revealing the history of the nations out of which 
the people of Israel sprang, their thoughts and 
deeds and history. In these records are begin- 
nings of the sacred books of the Hebrews written 
long afterwards. 

These rich sources in written records and oral 
traditions were enlarged by the life of the Hebrews 
The m Egypt, their emigration to and con- 

Growth of quest of Canaan, and their organization 

e aw into a nation which, after a century as 
one government under Saul, David and Solomon, 
separated into two kingdoms. With these sources 
to draw upon, various persons in each kingdom 
prepared accounts of their race and nation from 
the beginning of the world to their own time. 

Study again the outline of the beginnings and 
growth of the historical books of the Old Covenant 
in Part II, chs. 1 and 2 of this book. Because 



156 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

of its great importance as a key to the under- 
standing of the first library, this outline is here 
sketched again. 

As in the New Testament there are four gospels, 
so in the Old there were four narratives of the 
The Four beginnings of Israel. These are now 
Narratives un ited into one account given in the 
five books of the Law. (1) The Judean Narrative, 
written in the southern kingdom, is probably the 
oldest. It began with the story of the creation of 
man and the origin of sin, Gen. 2 : 4-3 : 24, and 
from these remote beginnings traced the history 
of the Covenant people of Jehovah to the death 
of David. (2) The narrative written in the 
northern kingdom, known as Ephraim, began 
with the Covenant of Jehovah with Abraham and 
extended to the end of the Elisha stories in 
2 Kings, ch. 13. These two narratives were some 
time afterwards combined into one with omissions, 
additions, and connecting links. 

The book of Deuteronomy, originally a restate- 
ment and adaptation of the laws of Israel to the 
Deute- conditions of the kingdom of Judah, 
ronomy j s enlarged by (3) a narrative review of 
the early experiences of the Hebrew people, 
based on accounts in Exodus and Numbers, and 
connecting Deuteronomy with the rest of the 
Law. The writer's motive, to justify the ways 
of God with the people with whom he had entered 



MAKING OF THE LAW 157 

into Covenant, appears in alterations and adapta- 
tions of the narrative in the other books. 

(4) The last narrative was by the priests of the 
Exile who produced the book of Leviticus, adapting 
The the older institutions and regulations 

Priestly of Israel to the new conditions of the 
ocumen p e0 p} e> reestablishing the temple wor- 
ship and the civil government at Jerusalem. It 
began with the account of the Creation, Gen. 
1:1-2:4 and continued to the allotment of the 
land of Canaan to the tribes. 

The union of these narratives into one, with 
various modifications and additions, produced the 
Tkg Law which before the reformation, about 

Narratives 400 b. a, was accepted as a sacred 
om ine recor( j 9 anc [ was perhaps the work of 
Ezra and the school of priests and lawyers to 
which he belonged, Ez. 7: 6; Neh. 8:1-3. 

For a detailed account of the structure and 
history of the formation of the Law, see the article 
Hexateuch by Professor Nourse in the Standard 
Bible Dictionary. For further study also see 
Professor Kent's Beginnings of Hebrew History, 
pp. 3-48. 



II 

THE BOOK OF GENESIS 

The first book in the library of the Covenant 
is not the oldest. It contains, however, some of 

the most ancient materials in the Bible. 

Its Hebrew title is the first word of the 

book, meaning "in the beginning." The name 

given to it in our English Bibles, Genesis, is 

taken from the Greek version, and means births, 

or origins. It may therefore properly be called 

the Book of Origins. 

The compiler who left the book in its present 

form brought together into one volume or roll 

_ „ , ten little books, each having the same 
Ten Books . . . & 

title, book oi Origins, or generations. 

Book I contains "the generations of the heavens 
and the earth," 2:4-4:26. The preceding verses 
were added as a preface when the whole book was 
formed, though 2 : 4 may at one time have been 
the opening sentence. 

Book II, the book of the generations of Adam, 
5:1-6:8. 

Book III, The generations of Noah, 6: 9-9: 29. 

158 



THE BOOK OF GENESIS 159 

Book IV, The generations of the sons of Noah, 
10:1-11:9. 

Book V, The generations of Shem, 11:10-26. 

Book VI, The generations of Terah the father 
of Abraham, 11:27-25:11. 

Book VII, The generations of Ishmael, 25: 
12-18. 

Book VIII, The generations of Isaac, 25:19- 
35:29. 

Book IX, The generations of Esau, 36:1-43. 

Book X, The generations of Jacob, 37: 2-50: 26. 

The compiler's purpose is indicated by the 
arrangement of these books. He traces the 
The history of Israel back to the beginnings 

Purpose f a u things. From the beginning of 
the universe he came down to the beginning of 
Man. Of the sons of the first man he selected 
Seth, who took the place of the murdered Abel, 
4:25; 5:3-8, and traced one line of his de- 
scendants to Noah. Of the sons of Noah he 
The Be- selected Shem, tracing one line down to 
ginnings Terah the father of Abraham; of 
o srae Abraham's sons he took Isaac and of 
Isaac's sons Jacob, from whom the nation got its 
name, Israel. The lines of Ishmael and Esau are 
briefly traced because of the relation of the 
nations which sprang from them to Israel. While 
each of Jacob's sons is the head of a tribe, the 
chief place in the later history of the patriarchs 



160 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

is given to Joseph, whose son Ephraim, Gen. 41 :52, 
gave his name to the northern kingdom, and to 
Judah, by whose name the southern kingdom was 
called, Isa. 7:9; 11:13; Jer. 31:20, 31. 

Another division of the book helpful for its 
study presents it in two sections. The first is 
Primeval primeval history, chs. 1:1-11:26. The 
History f our g rea t events in this section are 
The Creation, chs. 1, 2; The Fall and its conse- 
quences, chs. 3, 4; The Flood, cleansing the world 
of moral corruption, chs. 6-9, and The Confusion 
of Tongues, causing the dispersion of mankind, 
chs. 11:1-9. These stories are combinations of 
different versions and are traceable to Baby- 
lonian mythology. Compare, e.g. 1:1-2:3 with 
2:4-3:24. 

The second section is the history of the patri- 
archs, chs. 11:27-50:26, and includes the biog- 
Patriarchal raphies of Abraham, 11: 27-25:11, Isaac, 
History 25:19-35:29, and Jacob and Joseph, 
chs. 37-50. These and other heroes of lesser 
greatness, the heads of tribes, such as the twelve 
sons of Jacob and the two sons of Joseph, are the 
ancestors of the Hebrews, and as their stories were 
retold by prophetic and priestly writers ages after 
they lived, in periods of mature civilization of 
the nation, they represent the growth and 
character of clans and tribes which gradually 
were merged into the national life. 



THE BOOK OF GENESIS 161 

The value of these narratives is not to be 
measured by their accuracy as records of facts. 
The earliest story of the creation, e.g., begins with 
a picture of a dry and barren world watered for 
T the first time, when man was the first 

Historical living being created, 2:4-7. After a 
Value of garden had been planted by Jehovah, 

v. 8, and tilled by the man, v. 15, till 
its trees grew and their fruits were ripe, vs. 16, 
17, Jehovah created all kinds of animals and the 
man named them. Last of all he created a 
woman, vs. 21-23. 

But in the later story, of the creation which is 
placed before the other by the final editors, after 
all other beings were created, 1:24, 25, God (who 
is called by a different name from that in the 
earlier story) created man and woman simul- 
taneously, vs. 26, 27. 

These stories, however, have great historic 
value as showing the progress and development of 

men's knowledge of God and of human 
c th society under his guidance. The records 
of the of the patriarchs also, embodying tradi- 
Knowl- tions handed down in the localities 
God where the ancestral heroes of Israel 

lived, may be received as representing 
the deeds and characters of real men, idealized by 
prophets moved by the Spirit of God, patriots 
who thus sought to ennoble the generation of 



162 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

their own nation for whom they wrote and the 
generations that were to follow. 

The prophets and priests who compiled and 
wrote this book used the stories of the beginnings 
The °^ t nm g s which came down to them from 

Religious earlier nations and the traditions of 
Value their ancestral heroes for a great and 
holy purpose — to teach the Hebrew people the 
character of God, of his Covenant with them, and 
what he required of them to maintain that Cove- 
nant. Sometimes different writers used the same 
stories to teach different lessons. For example, 
the story of the creation was used to reveal the 
sacredness and purity of the marriage relation, 
2: 24, 25. The story was told in a later age in a 
different way to emphasize the value and sacred- 
ness of the institution of the Sabbath, 2:1-3. 

The great truth must be considered also that 
Israel by its geographical position, its relation 
Th to other nations and its history, had a 

Mission peculiar religious inheritance, appointed 
of the f or \± by j£ s Creator and Protector. Its 

prophetic teachers and leaders took the 
traditions and records of other nations and infused 
into them meanings which interpreted the national 
experiences as revelations of the eternal principles 
on which the Covenant was founded for those who 
sought to do the will of God. 

The first three chapters of Genesis, e.g., reveal 



THE BOOK OF GENESIS 163 

God as the Creator, 1 : 26, 27, Benefactor, v. 28, 
Provider, vs. 29, 30, Judge and Sovereign of man- 
kind, 3:9-19. In the ninth chapter he is fore- 
shadowed as the Merciful Father. Here in germ 
is the revelation in its completeness of the character 
of our God. 

A study of the book will disclose in like manner, 
through types of human character, through fam- 
T he ily and tribal experiences and through 

Revelation events in human history the principles 
in Genesis Q £ ^ vm g wn i cn are the will of God and 

their application in individual, social, and national 
affairs. The student who seeks in the book of 
Genesis the mind of God will find it, and will not 
fail to be convinced that God himself has revealed 
it to him. 



Ill 

EXODUS AND NUMBERS 

These two books form a continuous narrative 
of the beginnings of the nation of Israel from the 
The Story bondage in Egypt to their arrival, after 
of the their escape and their long wanderings 
journeys » n ^ e w jid ernesSj a ^ the eastern border 

of the Promised Land. The book of Exodus takes 
them from Egypt to Sinai, the book of Numbers 
from Sinai to the Jordan. 

The narrative is interspersed and broken up by 
the insertion at various points of laws for the 
The be- government of the people in the wilder- 
ginnings of ness and after their occupation of the 

e aw land, with instructions for the building 
and furnishing of the tabernacle, and with regula- 
tions for the conduct of public worship. 

The final editors of these books have brought 
together the combined narratives of the southern 
Sources of and northern kingdoms with extensive 
the Books selections from the priestly narrative, 
written after the exile. (See the closing para- 
graphs of ch. 1, Part. III.) To the latter, e.g., 

164 



EXODUS AND NUMBERS 165 

belong the directions concerning the tabernacle, 
Ex. chs. 25-31, 35-40, the census, arrangements 
of the camp etc., Num. chs. 1-10:28. From the 
former are taken the picturesque narrative por- 
tions, of which the first five chapters of Exodus, 
except a very few sentences, and Num. 10 : 29-12 : 15 
are illustrations. 

The combination of these sources causes some 
statements to seem inconsistent with each other; 
Conflicting £.#., in one sentence the spies are said 
Accounts t have gone the entire length of the 
promised land, Num. 13:21, and in the following 
sentences they are represented as having only 
entered the Southern part and then returned to 
the camp. 

Several beautiful poems are also quoted from 
books not now in existence, such as the triumph 
The songs of Moses and Miriam, Ex. ch. 15, 

Poems ^ ne \y ar p ra yer in connection with the 
Ark, Num. 10:35, 36, the Song of the Spring, 
21:17, 18, and the poems of Balaam, chs. 
23, 24. 

There are two sections in Exodus. The first 
is concerned with the history of the Israelites. 
Contents Chapter 1 describes their bondage in 
of the Egypt, chs. 2:1-7:7 the birth and train- 

books ing of Moses, chs. 7 : 8-12 : 36 the plagues 
and wonders, chs. 12:37-15:21 the departure from 
Egypt, chs. 15:22-18:27 the journey from the Red 



166 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

Sea to Sinai. The central event of the book and 
First indeed of the whole history is the giving 

Section j- tne j jCLW an( i tne Covenant entered into 
under the mountain, ehs. 19-24. 

The second section is mainly the priestly narra- 
tive, concerned with laws and institutions; in- 
The structions for building the tabernacle, 

Second consecrating the priests and appointing 
their duties, and establishing an order 
of public worship. It includes, however, the 
account, mostly from the earlier narratives, of 
the apostasy of the Israelites, their punishment, 
and the renewal of the Covenant, chs. 32-34. 

No book of the Law is so difficult of analysis 
as Numbers. Its statistical materials and legal 
The regulations, which are taken from the 

Book of late priestly records and form the largest 
urn ers p ar j. Q £ ^ e book, break in upon the 
narrative here and there, often without apparent 
connection with it. But it may be loosely divided 
into four sections. 

I. The first section, chs. 1-10, is mainly occupied 
with a census of the tribes, arrangements of the 
camp, laws concerning the tabernacle, things clean 
and unclean, suspected adultery and vows. Com- 
pare 10:29-32 with Ex. ch. 18, two versions of the 
same story. In one of them Moses' father-in-law 
was named Hobab, in the other Jethro. 

II. Chs. 11-20, a narrative of events and 



EXODUS AND NUMBERS 167 

experiences of the Israelites while they were 
encamped in the neighborhood of Kadesh. Ch. 
10:33 might properly be joined to Ex. 34:35, or 
even to Ex. 24:18, making a continuous story. 

III. Chs. 20-27, mainly a collection of exceed- 
ingly interesting though not very closely connected 
events on the march from Kadesh to the east 
bank of the Jordan, concluding with the appoint- 
ment of Moses' successor. 

IV. Chs. 28-36, a collection of laws and regula- 
tions said to have been issued on the plains of 
Moab, with incidents illustrating these laws and 
traditions associated with the locality. 

These records are based on historic facts. 
They are of great value as preserving these facts, 
Historical and also as presenting their interpreta- 
Value i\ on D y Hebrew writers several centuries 
after the events occurred. 

It must be remembered that these books were 
not written primarily to give a knowledge of 
The history, but to teach religious truths, 

Purpose illustrating them by selected events of 
history. Records of these events were selected 
from different and sometimes variant accounts. 
For example, according to the narrative of the 
northern kingdom, God had never revealed him- 
self to the patriarchs by his name Jehovah, which 
he used for the first time in making himself known 
to Moses, Ex. 6:2, 3. According to the narrative 



168 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

of the southern kingdom, Abraham called God 
by the name Jehovah, Gen. 12: 8, and men did so 
ages before that time, Gen. 4: 26. 

It should be remembered also that the writers 
of these books idealized history to adapt it to 
Idealized their religious purpose; e.g., the seduc- 
History tions of the Moabites caused Israel 
to fall into gross crimes, just after a glorious 
destiny had been predicted for them, Num. 
25:1-15. Because of this Jehovah commanded 
The Moses to punish the Midianites, a tribe 

Midianite of the Moabites, vs. 16-18. Therefore 

aug er the writer of Numbers describes the 
annihilation of that tribe as the crowning act of 
Moses' life, ch. 31. But the description of it 
measured by our moral standards is repulsive, 
and it is impossible for us to believe that Jehovah 
commanded it. Moreover, it could not have 
occurred as described, for if every male had been 
killed, 31:17, the Midianites could not in after 
years have held the Israelites in subjection, Jud. 
6:1, 2. 

The history they contain is subordinated to 
their religious purpose. The writers no doubt 
The accepted the records they used as 

Religious authentic. But they used them as 
v e Jesus used parables, because they were 
sure to interest the people and wonderfully fitted to 
convey the meaning of the truths from God they 



EXODUS AND NUMBERS 169 

sought to teach. They represented God as the 
supreme One, who loves righteousness and hates 
wrong doing; and the supreme object of living, 
for the nation and the individual, as their coming 
into and enjoying intimate personal relations with 
God. 

To them the ideal men were those welcomed 
into such relations with God. Such a man was 
Moses the Moses, the dominating personality in 
Greatest these two books and indeed in the 

entire library of the Law from his birth 
onward. He is the ideal hero for all ages, in- 
tensely human in his sympathies with the un- 
disciplined multitude committed to his care; so 
keenly sensitive to the presence of God that he 
sees him in the great things of nature in her soli- 
tudes, and hears his voice calling him to deliver 
the people chosen for a great destiny, Ex. 3:1-5. 

Follow the course of his life as the servant 
of Jehovah, the mighty struggle on the banks 
Th O t- °^ ^ e "^ e between might and right, 
line of where right prevailed because of the 
Moses* courage and faith with which this 

shepherd of Midian faced the great 
king of the nation that held his people enslaved, 
Ex. 5:1-4; 12:31, 32; the steadfast confidence 
with which he sealed the Covenant between 
Jehovah and Israel, Ex. 24: -8; the measure of 
patience with which, through discipline and inter- 



170 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

cession, he secured the pardon of Jehovah for 
their falls into heinous ingratitude and inex- 
cusable crimes, Num. 11:1-15; 14:11-19; the 
prophetic insight rewarded by revelations from 
God, Ex. 33:12-19, which rises into such royal 
dignity in intimacy with God that it was re- 
membered in after ages that no other prophet 
ever arose in Israel like unto Moses, "whom 
Jehovah knew face to face," "as a man speaketh 
unto his friend." Deut. 34:10; Ex. 33:11. 

Each incident recorded in these books brings 
out some distinctive trait of a titanic mental and 
Th moral character; the facing and quelling 

Meaning of rebellions in the camp instigated by 
? f ^ Ch + trusted leaders, even his own brother 
nC1 en and sister, Num. 12:1-15; 16:41-48; 
21:4-9; the calm reception of the repulse of their 
own kinsmen, the Edomites, Num. 20:14-21; the 
battles with and victories over the Amorites and 
other strong nations entrenched in their path to 
the Promised Land, Num. 21:1-3, 21-25, 33-35; 
the conquest of the seer called by the king of 
Moab to curse Israel, Num. chs. [22-24; the 
recovery from the fall before the temptation to 
Moabite idolatry, ch. 25; the mighty achieve- 
ment of organizing a horde of undisciplined slaves 
into a conquering nation with a system of govern- 
ment controlled by a system of worship, and the 
resignation with which after forty years of unre- 



EXODUS AND NUMBERS 171 

mitting toil he bowed to the will of God and laid 
down his life, Deut. 34:1-12. 

Who can wonder that the nation should have 
ascribed to Moses the whole system of laws 
Moses a developed through their experience by 
Revelation which they were governed in after ages? 
rom o £ an an y thoughtful person study sym- 
pathetically the character and career of the great 
lawgiver whose influence has been felt increasingly 
throughout the world down to our own time, and 
doubt that he and his work were a revelation from 
God? 



IV 
THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS 

The book of laws for the use of the priests of 
the second temple is called Leviticus. Its name, 
It T'tl &i yen °y Greek-speaking Jews, implies 
that it describes the functions of the 
Levites, which is not the case. A better title is 
that given in the Talmud, The Law of the Priests. 

Portions of this law are scattered through 
Exodus and Numbers, between which books 
Its Leviticus is placed in the English Bible. 

Character j^ j s a continuation of the legal section of 
Exodus. The instructions concerning the making 
of the tabernacle, Ex. chs. 25-31; 34-39, are 
followed by directions for setting it up and the 
initiation of Aaron and his sons into the priest- 
hood, 40:1-16. A description is given of the first 
service, in which Moses acted as priest, 40:17-35. 

The manual of directions to the priests for 
offering sacrifices immediately follows, Lev. chs. 
Its 1-7. Chs. 8, 9, describe the induction 

Contents f Aaron and his sons into the priest- 
hood according to the directions in Exodus, 

172 



THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS 173 

ch. 29, and 40:12-16. The story of the destruc- 
tion of two of Aaron's sons, Lev. 10:1-8, is next 
told as an introduction to certain legal prescrip- 
tions concerning the provision and food for 
priests and their families, vs. 9-20. 

At this point in the story of Nadab and Abihu 
is inserted a manual or code of laws concerning 
ceremonial purity, chs. 11-15. Then the story 
is continued introducing legislation following the 
death of the two priests providing for the Day of 
Atonement, the culmination of the ceremonial 
code, a fast not elsewhere mentioned in the He- 
brew history except in Num. 29:7-11. 

Then follows a section called by modern scholars 
the Law of Holiness, chs. 17-26. After a set of 
laws concerning vows and offerings connected 
with the tabernacle, the priestly document is con- 
tinued to Num. 10:10. 

The central idea of the Levitical Law was that 
all worship acceptable to Jehovah must be offered 
Its Central at the one sanctuary, where he had 
Idea fixed his dwelling place, Lev. 26:11, 12, 

and had promised to meet with the children of 
Israel, Ex. 29:42,-45. 

Such worship could not be offered by any except 
priests. They surrounded and guarded the sacred 
place. Next to them were the Levites, forming a 
second cordon around it, Num. 1:50-53. 

By the Levitical Code an infringement against 



174 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

a ceremonial law was as wicked as disobedience 
to any of the ten commandments. The eating by 
Emphasis a priest of the flesh of an animal that 
on Ritual jj ac j \y een ^orn j^ beasts was a sin 
deserving death, Lev. 22:8, 9. If any person 
offered a peace offering to Jehovah by killing an 
animal before the sanctuary, Lev. 3:1, 2, and kept 
any of the flesh till the third day to be eaten, he 
was to be punished by expulsion from the nation, 
19:7, 8. 

All violations of the ceremonial law required 
atonement. The great object of the ritual was 

Atonement 10 P rovide this - The onl y wa ^ atone - 
ment could be made was by offering 

sacrifice by shedding blood, 17:11. Only priests 

could make atonement for the people, 10:17. If 

the whole people, or any individual, should break 

any law, not having known what it was, the priest 

could make an atonement for him and he would 

be forgiven, 4:27-31. Only the priests could do 

the atoning act, and all others must pay them for 

doing it, Num. 18:8 ff. 

This system of worship culminated, according 

to the ritual, in a great annual fast, the Day of 

The Day of Atonement, whose service was elaborately 

Atonement prescr ibed in ch. 16. The people, the 

priests, and even the sanctuary itself were to be 

atoned for in this service, and all were thus 

purified of their sins, 16: 30-34. There is no 



THE BOOK OF LEVITICUS 175 

account of the observance of this fast on any 
occasion in the historical books of the Old Cove- 
nant, though the penalty for not observing it was 
excommunication, 23:26-32. It is mentioned in 
the New Testament as an established institution, 
Acts 27 : 9, and it is now the most solemn day in 
the year to Jews. Its roots probably reach down 
into the primitive religion of the ancestors of the 
Hebrews, and its service was thus carefully wrought 
out during the exile as the ideal expression of the 
heinousness and contagion of sin and the necessity 
of cleansing from it in order to communion with God. 

The Law of Holiness, chs. 17-26, mingles to- 
gether ceremonial and ethical precepts. It com- 
TheLawof mands men to be of the same nature as 
Holiness Jehovah, 19:2. It enjoins reverence for 
parents, v. 3, kindness to the poor and to 
foreigners, vs. 9, 10, 33, 34, honesty, vs. 11, 36, 
love for neighbors, v. 18, honor for the aged, v. 32. 
It also forbids eating blood, v. 26, mixing seeds 
and clothes, v. 19, certain ways of trimming the 
hair and beard, v. 27, and makes no distinction 
between the two kinds of right doing. 

In the main this entire collection of laws is 
concerned with public worship in connection with 
Tljg the Hebrew sanctuary. There are evi- 

Purpose of dences that they have passed through 
evi icus var j ous modifications and changes adapt- 
ing them to the conditions of the people in dif- 



176 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

ferent periods extending over several hundred 
years. Their beginnings were in the Covenant 
code promulgated in the time of Moses, about 
1200 b. c, Ex. chs. 20-23, 34. They have closer 
relations with the code adopted in the times of 
Josiah, about 621 b. c, given in the book of 
Deuteronomy. In its present form the book of 
Leviticus was probably put forth by Ezra about 
454 b. c. 

Its ceremonial laws emphasized the separate- 
ness of the Hebrews from other nations. They 
Its Relig- appear to have been necessary at the 
ious Value time they were adopted, to preserve the 
Jews and their religion from being absorbed in 
other nations. But the Levitical system has long 
since passed away. Its meaning has emerged 
into nobler forms of expression. Its require- 
ments of the mediation of priests have ceased 
to have force, 1 Tim. 2:5, 6. The practice of 
justice, mercy and moral obedience which the 
Levitical Law insisted on has become the Chris- 
tian law with nobler sanctions. As recording a 
stage of development of the religion of Israel, the 
book has much historic interest for the student. 
It has its place in the progress of divine revelation. 
But its commands in respect to worship are not 
addressed to the Christian conscience. 



DEUTERONOMY 

The book of greatest influence in all Hebrew 
history was the one placed last in the Law Library. 
T It antedates all the others in that col- 

Position lection. It was probably the first book, 
in the Old jf we except the document containing 
the Decalogue in Exodus, to be recog- 
nized as having sacred authority, 4:1, 2. 

Its name in the English Bible is a translation 
of the Greek title which signifies a duplicate copy, 
It Ttl 17:18, or more probably a restatement 
of the legislation recorded in the pre- 
ceding books. It has been called "The Gospel 
of the Old Testament." Not all modern scholars 
are agreed, however, that its influence over Israel 
was wholly beneficial. 

Read 2 Kings 22:8-23:25. It is generally 
acknowledged that the book thus described as 
Its having been found in the temple during 

History ^he reign of Josiah, 621 b. c, was in 
substance Deuteronomy. The chief reason is 
that the reforms introduced by Josiah, which 

177 



178 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

created a religious revolution in Judah, were 
precisely those called for in this book. 

It consists mainly of four addresses and two 
poems, all attributed to Moses. The brief intro- 
Its Com- ductory words, 1 .1-5, explain that these 
position addresses and poems were uttered to 
the people on a certain day near the close of his 
life in a deep valley east of the Dead Sea. 

Chs. 1:6-4:40 are presented as the first address 
by Moses to the people. It is a review of Israel's 
The First experiences during the Wanderings in the 
Oration Wilderness and an exhortation to whole- 
hearted loyalty to Jehovah. 

After a second brief explanation of the place 
where the addresses were made, 4:44-49, the 
The second address is given, chs. 5-26. It 

Second consists of two portions. The first 
Oration begins with the statement of the prin- 
ciples on which the relations of Jehovah, the one 
supreme God, with his chosen people rest, and 
follows with instructions to teach his law to their 
children, to obey that law and to make no com- 
promise with the worship of the Canaanites. 
The Book The secon d portion, chs. 12-26, is a 
of the rehearsal of specific laws affecting the 
Covenant re i igiouSj civi \ y and socia l ]$ e f the 

Hebrews. This portion was in all probability the 
book which Hilkiah found in the temple. 

Ch. 27 includes instructions delivered by Moses 



DEUTERONOMY 179 

and the Elders for writing the Law on stones, 
vs. 1-8, and by Moses and the priests for its rati- 
The Third fication by the people, v. 9. Then fol- 
Oration } ow directions for the utterance by the 
Levites of curses on the disobedient, vs. 11-24. 
This chapter is a preface to the third address on 
the consequences of obeying and disobeying the 
statutes and commandments of the Book of the 
Covenant, ch. 28. By some scholars, however, 
this chapter is regarded as a conclusion to the 
section, chs. 5-26. 

The final address, chs. 29, 30, is entitled The 
Covenant in the land of Moab, 29 :1. It concludes 
The w ^ n brief farewell words, 31:1-8, in- 

Fourth structions for the preserving and public 
Oration reading f the law> vs 9 _ 13> 24 _ 29) and 

the commission of Joshua as the successor of 
Moses, vs. 14-18, 23. 

An introduction to the first of two songs is 
given in vs. 19-22, 30. The song 32:1-43 cele- 
Two Noble brates the faithful love of Jehovah to 
Poems hj s people notwithstanding their ingrati- 
tude. Then follows another poem, described as 
the Last Words of Moses, which exalts ideally 
the twelve tribes and glorifies the nation as saved 
and protected by Jehovah, 33:2-29. 

The main object of the book was the reorganiza- 
tion of public worship by centralizing it at Jeru- 
salem, 12:5-14. At all events that was the way 



180 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

King Josiah understood it, for he not only cleansed 
the temple of all objects of alien worship, but 
Its he destroyed all the local sanctuaries 

Purpose m the kingdom and took their priests 
away from them, 2 Kings, 23:8. In the territory 
of the northern kingdom he not only destroyed 
the famous sanctuary erected by Jeroboam at 
Bethel, but likewise all the local sanctuaries 
throughout the country, killing their priests and 
sacrificing them on their own altars, 2 Kings, 
23:15, 19, 20. 

If every church in this land were suddenly 
ordered by the government to be closed, and 
A Religious public worship restricted by law to a 
Revolution cathedral at the national capital, while 
all the priests and ministers were removed from 
the communities where they were serving, the 
situation would be in some sense parallel to that 
of the reformation in Judah based on the newly 
found book of the Law. 

The consequences of this reformation were 
manifold. By the earlier law which had existed 
for centuries, a sanctuary acceptable to 
of the Jehovah could be erected in any place, 
Adoption Ex. 20:24. By the law in the newly 
Law S discovered book public worship was 
acceptable to him in one place only, 
the temple in Jerusalem, Deut. 12 :13, 14. Accord- 
ing to ancient custom the passover had been 



DEUTERONOMY 181 

celebrated in the homes as a family festival, 
Ex. 12 : 21-27. By the new law the passover could 
be celebrated only in Jerusalem as a national 
festival, Deut. 16:5, 6. In earlier times the 
priests of the local sanctuaries acted as judges of 
local courts. One central tribunal now took the 
place of all these, Deut. 17:8-11. Formerly men 
threatened with the vengeance of others had fled 
for protection to village altars, Ex. 21:14. Now 
three cities had to be set apart to take the place 
of the destroyed altars, Deut. 19:1-3. 

The reformation in Judah brought about by 
Deuteronomy was effective for the time, but it 
Ruling came too late to save the nation, 
Ideas g Kings 23:24-27. However its perma- 

nent results were immeasurable. It emphasized 
as never before the unity and supremacy of 
Jehovah. Its motto might appropriately be "One 
sanctuary, one God." It taught that idolatry was 
the chief of sins, 6:14, 15; 17:2-5. It tended 
strongly to separate the Hebrews from other 
nations, 7:1-3. Deuteronomy exalted the unsel- 
fish love of Jehovah for his chosen people with- 
out any desert of theirs, 7:6-10; 9:4, 5. The 
only response for this love acceptable to him is 
the same kind of love in return, 6:4-9. This love 
to Jehovah prompts like love to one's neighbors, 
22:1-4 and to all creatures he has made, vs. 6, 7. 
It was from Deuteronomy that Jesus summarized 



182 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

the whole of the Old Covenant in two sentences, 
Matt. 22:37-40. 

This book contains laws almost identical with 
those on the recently discovered tablet of king 
Its Hammurabi, who ruled from the Medi- 

Sources terranean Sea to the Persian gulf a 
thousand years before Moses. It reproduces 
nearly every commandment of the Covenant Code 
in Ex. chs. 20-23, reshaping the teachings so as 
to adapt them to centralized worship instead of 
at the local altars. It shows also a distinct 
advance in revealing Jehovah as the God of all 
nations and his will as the moral law for all man- 
kind. 

The fundamental principles of Deuteronomy 
are those which Moses taught as recorded in 
Its Exodus and Numbers. In accordance 

Author with ancient custom it is not strange 
that the author of the book should put the very 
words of its teaching into the mouth of Moses. 
But it is hardly conceivable that its chief message, 
the centralization of worship at Jerusalem, should 
have been taught by Moses and not known or not 
regarded by any of the prophets or kings of Israel 
or Judah for hundreds of years after the temple 
was built. See e.g. 1 Chron. 16:39, 40; I Kings, 
3:4; 18:30-32; 19:10, 14. The author of Deute- 
ronomy in its present form is unknown. 

The account of the finding of the book, 2 Kings 



DEUTERONOMY 183 

ch. 22, gives no hint of the time when it was 
written. But the history of Hezekiah and his 
Tt n attempted reforms and of the terrible re- 

action during the long reign of Manasseh 
strongly suggests that the code, ch. 12-26, was 
prepared during that period by men who remained 
faithful to Jehovah. Some of the other portions 
carry convincing evidences of having been added 
later. 

The author or authors of Deuteronomy have 
left marks of their editing on most of the other 
Its Relation historical books. They have edited the 
to other book of Kings so as to condemn the 
rulers of Israel and Judah for wor- 
shiping at the local sanctuaries, and to account 
for the destruction of both kingdoms as a punish- 
ment for apostatizing from the worship of Jehovah 
at Jerusalem only, 2 Kings 17:7-18; 23:26, 27. 

The publication of the Deuteronomic code was 
an attempt to present in a practical program the 
Its teachings of Isaiah and the other earlier 

Permanent prophets. It resulted in the reform of 
n uence ^ e wors } 1 jp f Jehovah which had be- 
come corrupt, in translating aspirations after great 
religious ideals into statutes and commandments 
fitted to realize them, and in making the essence of 
religion the basis of morality and of society. Its 
ideal is a holy nation governed by divinely ap- 
pointed priests according to the will of God. 



VI 



THE LIBRARY OF THE COVENANT 
COMPLETED 

The thirty-nine books of the Library of the 
Old Covenant have been examined in the pre- 
Tk e ceding chapters. The oldest bears the 

Period of title Amos, who preached about 750 
Making b. c. The latest is the book of Daniel, 
written about 165 b. c. The making of this 
library, from the writing of the first book till the 
reception of the last one into the latest collection, 
extends over about 600 years. Measure that time 
by the records of the history of English speaking 
peoples from about two centuries before the dis- 
covery by Columbus of the New World to the 
present time. Consider the great events that 
have occurred, the progress made in knowledge 
of all sorts, in inventions, in government, in the 
social relations of mankind in six hundred years. 
Remember that such a progress must in some 
measure be reflected in the successive books of 
this wonderful library. 

Many of these books include materials pro- 

184 



LIBRARY OF COVENANT 185 

duced much earlier than they. We have traced 
some of these materials back almost to the begin- 
Growth of nings of human history. We have found 
Material them in traditions handed down through 
many generations from nations old in civilization 
and religion before the Hebrews existed. This li- 
brary, then, represents the history of the relations 
between God and mankind through more than thirty 
centuries, the progress of knowledge of him through 
stages of revelation of his will and character in the 
aspirations and experiences of men in many lands 
and successive ages. 

No other ancient collection of books compares 
with this in the time it covers, the peoples it 
The Con- represents, the themes with which it 
trolling deals, and its ever increasing influence 
Purpose on ] luman SO ciety. And the controlling 
fact and purpose of this library is the Covenant 
entered into and maintained between God and a 
people chosen to be his, Ex. 6:2-4; 19:5, 6; Ps. 
89:33,34; Isa. 55:3; 59:20,21. 

We have traced back the history of the library 
from the time of its completion, Part I, ch. 12, to 
Stages of the writing of the books composing it 
Growth an( j to the documents used in making 
these books. We note now the distinctive stages 
that are known in making the library and elevating 
it to the position of the Holy Scriptures of the 
Covenant. 



186 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

No evidence has been found of the existence of 
this library till after the captivity, which dates 
The First back to 586 B. c. A brief compendium 
Stage f j aws was committed to writing by 

Moses, Ex. 24:4. The Ten Words, as they were 
called, Ex. 34:27, 28, were placed in the Ark 
of the Covenant. Nothing else was in the ark 
when it was placed in the first temple, 1 Kings 
8:9. 

A larger collection, found several centuries 
later — the laws in the book of Deuteronomy — 
The was adopted by the king and people of 

Second Judah as the book of the Covenant, 
Stage g Kings 23: ^ s But nQ co nection of 

sacred books as yet appears. 

Nearly two centuries later Ezra, "the ready 
scribe in the Law of Moses," Ez. 7:6, came from 
The Babylon to the restored Jerusalem. 

Third There is reason to believe that during 

age the captivity the records of the laws and 

history of the nation had been carefully gathered. 
He carried with him a copy of the Law, Ez. 
7:10, 14. 

A few years later Ezra brought the book of the 
Law of Moses and read from it to the people 
The and explained its meaning, Neh. 8:1-8. 

Earliest This book, it is reasonably certain, was 
Library ^ SUDS t anC e the Pentateuch, the first 
Sacred library. 



LIBRARY OF COVENANT 187 

The popular acceptance of the books as having 
divine authority was much encouraged by the 
"The habit, inaugurated by Ezra and his 

Law" associates, of reading them publicly on 

op e Sabbaths and other festival seasons in 
the synagogues. The date of the acceptance of 
"The Law" as a sacred library is approximately 
444 b. c. 

The first collection of sacred books in liturgical 
reading came comparatively early to be felt as 
incomplete. From early times prophets 
Making nac ^ taught and interpreted the Law, 
of the when it was mostly oral tradition. Now 
Library ^ na ^ ** nac ^ cr y s talized into a library the 
office of the prophet declined. But 
many of the prophetic books were in existence 
before the first library was elevated to the position 
of sacred authority. The sayings of the prophets 
were referred to during the captivity as the Word 
of Jehovah, Ezek. 38:17. 

The complete collection of the books which 
form the second library could hardly have been 
"The made earlier than 300 b. c. It did not 

Prophets " include the book of Daniel which was 

op e esteemed as prophecy in the time of 
Christ, Matt. 24 :15, and which was written about 
165 b. c. The prologue to the apocryphal 
book of Ecclesiasticus written about 132 b. c. 
mentions "the Prophets" as the second of the 



188 MAKING OF THE BIBLE 

three collections of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is 
probable then, that as early as the middle of the 
third century b. c. lessons from the Prophets were 
added to those of the Law in the public readings 
of the synagogues, Luke 4:17, Acts 13:15, 27. 
They were not for some time, however, regarded 
as of equal authority with the Law, but were 
read to supplement or illustrate it. 

The completion of the third collection, "the 
"The Writings," and of the whole Hebrew 

Writings" Scriptures as one library, is explained 

op e in the closing paragraphs of Chapter 
12, Part I. 

The deepest impression made by a survey of 
the library of the Old Covenant is that of the 
The Old continuing growth among men of the 
Covenant knowledge of God and of His require- 

comp e e men j- s f them, of the conception of 
man as the creation and offspring of God, and of 
the sense of social obligation, of the duties of all 
men to their fellow-men as children of One Father. 
The impression also grows during this study of 
the incompleteness of the library of the Old 
Covenant as a revelation of the character and will 
of God. It was preparing the way for the great 
revelation of the New Covenant to be made through 
His Son Jesus, the Messiah, Heb. 1:1-4. 

This knowledge of God has always been pos- 
sessed by men, though in different degrees. The 



LIBRARY OF COVENANT 189 

revelation in the books, in order to be apprehended, 
requires the continuing and illuminating presence 
The m the student of the Spirit of God 

Library which inspired their authors. This pro- 
Covenant £ ress m the knowledge of God is in our 
still time greater than ever before. Long 

Growing ^ ur j e( j treasures uncovered yield light 
on the sacred pages. Reverent research, and 
even study not prompted by faith in God, are 
adding to the clearness of men's visions of him 
in his world and Word. The revelation of God 
to mankind is in its nature continuous. He is 
the living God ever speaking to living men, Matt. 
22:32. 

As we trace the beginnings and growth of this 
library of the Covenant, then, we may reasonably 
Promised ex P ec ^ to find not only treasures old 
Revela- but also those that will be new, as yet 
tions undiscovered, Matt. 13:51, 52. We 

shall therefore best fulfill the purpose of this 
study by appropriating for ourselves out of the 
Old Covenant the prayer: 

"fiDpm ttfiott mint w& tfiat 3 map brijolti 
Mlontirottg tfimgtf out of mv Jtatof ' 

and out of the New Covenant the promise of the 
Son of God: 

W&z &ptnt ot 'BTtutS ♦ ♦ . Sfiall guitie poti into 
all t&e €tttt&." 



BOOKS FOR REFERENCE 

Dictionaries. The best equipment of the average 
student in pursuing the study of the subject of 
this book is Funk & Wagnall's A Standard Bible 
Dictionary, or Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible in 
one volume. Taken together one volume often 
supplements the other. 

Histories. Prof. Charles Foster Kent of Yale Uni- 
versity has made contributions of great value to 
the modern study of the Bible. His Historical 
Series for Bible Students is in four volumes, the 
last volume written by Prof. J. S. Riggs. Ottley's 
Short History of the Hebrews and Cornill's History 
of the People of Israel are valuable compendiums. 
Kent's Historical Bible in six volumes is intended 
for Bible class use with appendices of general 
questions and subjects for special research. 

Commentaries. The Messages of the Bible, a series, of 
which seven volumes are on the Old Testament, 
presents in paraphrases the religious messages of 
the books as they are interpreted by modern 
scholarship. Kent's Student's Old Testament, six 
volumes, undertakes to rearrange the writings in 
their logical order, by means of critical analysis, 
to indicate their dates and authorship so far as 
known, and to offer a clear translation with inter- 
190 



BOOKS FOR REFERENCE 191 

pretative notes. The Cambridge Bible for Scholars 
is on the whole an excellent series of short com- 
mentaries on individual books. In the series 
entitled The Bible for Home and School, the volume 
on Isaiah by Prof. J. E. MacFadyen especially 
deserves mention, while Prof. George Adam Smith's 
Isaiah (2 volumes) and The Twelve (2 volumes) 
in The Expositor's Bible are of unusual excellence. 

Introductions to the Old Testament. Mac- 
Fadyen, Cornill, and Driver have written volumes 
of profound learning and insight. 

General. Robertson Smith's Old Testament in the 
Jewish Church and Prophets of Israel, Kent's 
Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testa- 
ment, R. G. Moulton's Literary Study of the Bible, 
and Ryle's Canon of the Old Testament are very 
valuable. 

More extended lists of books on biblical and 
related subjects will be found in several of the 
volumes above named. The number is large 
and constantly increasing. I have mentioned 
only some of those I have used in preparing these 
chapters, which seem to me serviceable for un- 
technical students. 



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